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CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL 



COMMENTARY 



ON 



THE BOOK OF EXODUS, 



NEW TEANSLATION. 



JAMES G. MURPHY, D.D., T.C.D., 

PROFESSOR OP HEBREW, BELFAST. 




WARREN F. DRAPER. 

BOSTON: W. H. HALLIDAY AND COMPANY, 

KOS. 58 AND 60 CORNHILL. 

PHILADELPHIA: SMITH, ENGLISH, AND CO. 

1868. 



3*0 \Z4 



26 1929 



Q[^vw*> 



lit 



PREFACE. 



If the one God make a world and write a book, it is to ba 
expected that nature and Scripture will agree. But their in- 
terpreters may differ. It is notorious that there has been a 
philosophy that was only vain deceit — a science, falsely so 
called. This was simply a false interpretation of nature. It 
could not be presumed that such would agree with the Bible. 
It is equally well known that- false principles of interpretation 
have been applied to the Scripture, the results of which have 
also been at variance with nature. Admitting, however, the 
word and the work to come both from God, men, with the 
narrow and partially erroneous philosophy of their day, have 
endeavored to harmonize them. In doing so, they have in 
some instances imposed a sense upon Scripture which has 
eventually turned out to be incongruous with the conclusions 
of a wider and more exact philosophy. But while the former 
results of speculative and scientific inquiry have been modi- 
fied or reversed, it has been generally taken for granted that 
the old meanings attached to those portions of Scripture that 
touch upon physical or metaphysical phenomena remain true 
and incontrovertible. 

It is to be remembered, however, that these meanings 
flowed from minds otherwise well cultivated, but at the same 



4 PREFACE. 

time imbued with the errors of their day on physical and other 
questions. Their mistaken preconceptions insensibly guided 
their interpretation ; and hence they found in Scripture, and 
fixed upon it, the prejudices of a dogmatic science. And 
there are actually men of critical and cultivated minds, open to 
the advancing and astonishing disclosures of modern science, 
who reject with impatience, and pronounce to be ingenious 
trifling, any attempt at an interpretation of Scripture free 
from the prejudices of the past and in harmony with the 
science of the present. They assume that the interpreter has 
already done all justice to these parts of Scripture, and regard 
it as a settled point that this venerable record of the past is, 
and must have been, out of harmony with the present state 
of science. 

If the Scripture was a book of merely human origin we 
might acquiesce in this conclusion. In that case, being com- 
posed, most of it long before the Christian era, and all of it 
long before the era of physical science, it must have partaken 
of the errors of its age. And the wonder would be, not that 
it contains the few errors on physical questions which some 
interpreters find in it, but that it does not contain a multitude 
of others common to the ages in which it was produced. The 
Mosaic cosmogony, history, and philology, even according to 
the common interpretation, solve questions, which without 
their aid speculation and science have attempted in vain. It 
need scarcely be added that the theology and ethics of the 
Pentateuch, not to speak of the New Testament, far transcend 
all the attainments of unassisted human reason. The appear- 
ance of such a volume in such an age is simply unaccountable 
on the hypothesis of its human origin. 



PKEFACE. 5 

The Scripture, however claiming and proving itself in so 
many ways to be of divine origin and authority, is clearly as 
liable to be misinterpreted as nature. It is positively more so. 
Nature comes directly from the hand of God, and shows no 
traces of a human hand, except what havoc sin has wrought 
in man. Yet it has been long and grievously misapprehended 
by the haste or pride of its interpreters. But Scripture comes 
from God through the minds and utterances of men. Hence 
it expresses the revelations of God in the phraseology of un- 
tutored or misinformed man. It presents, therefore, an inci- 
dental element of relative imperfection in the mode of expres- 
sion. How much more, then, is it liable to be misunderstood 
by an interpreter, who is himself led astray by the errors of 
his own or past times ? 

A free and fair thinker will feel that a divine communication, 
if such may be, must achieve the difficult, and to man impos- 
sible, task of conveying a system of truth in the imperfect 
vehicle of human language, without coming into real conflict 
with the facts of nature. Now it is plain that a communica- 
tion so expressed, though it be in fundamental harmony with 
nature, may appear not to be so from casual phrases, which 
convey a fact, indeed, plainly enough, but in terms which 
involve an old or popular misconception regarding it. Thus 
when we say, " the sun sets," the event intended is adequately 
expressed, and perfectly understood, though the terms fail to 
give a strictly accurate account of what actually takes place. 
And only when we have succeeded in disentangling the error 
unavoidably belonging to the medium of communication are 
we at liberty to regard the meaning remaining in the words as 
the statement intended by the sacred record. Hence, in re- 



6 PREFACE. 

ceivmg a divine revelation couched in human words, it is only 
fair that we discount any error that may incidentally lurk in 
the ordinary phraseology of the time. 

This law for the exposition of a divine record, though 
evident in itself, and demanded by equity, has yet had to force 
its way in all ages to acceptance and authority. When 
Galileo, in the seventeenth century, proclaimed that the earth 
had a diurnal motion on its axis, and an annual motion 
round the sun, he was condemned for teaching what was con- 
tradictory to the assertions of the Bible. His judges were not 
aware, or did not admit, of the fair and obvious principle of 
interpretation which has now received a partial recognition. 
No one now maintains that the Scriptures assert that the earth 
stands still, while the sun performs a diurnal revolution in 
twenty-four hours. Yet there are men in this nineteenth cen- 
tury who regard with hesitation, if they do not turn away 
with undisguised distrust, from any attempt to apply this or 
any other equally fair rule of hermeneutics to those portions 
of the Bible which are presumed to be repugnant to the con- 
clusions of physical science. We could understand this, if its 
divine authority were to be abandoned. But with its claim to 
be given by inspiration of God before us, we submit that it is 
as well entitled to an amended interpretation as nature itself. 
Natural science receives a constant readjustment as new facts 
disclose themselves to the enlightened observer. Biblical 
science has a still more pressing claim to a similar reconstruc- 
tion, inasmuch as it has long suffered from a defective mode 
of elucidation, not based on a fair estimate of itself, but 
biassed by a false view of nature. The interpreter of nature 
amends his method under the force of accumulated experi- 



PREFACE. 7 

ence. Let the interpreter of Scripture enjoy the same right. 
Especially let him be released from the bondage which the 
vain philosophy of a bygone age has imposed upon him. Lib- 
erated from the prejudices of the past, and standing in the 
light of present science, let him at least make the attempt to 
interpret Scripture as the word of God, that must be in real 
harmony with the works of God. It will be time enough to 
abandon the theory of divine inspiration when right principles 
of hermeneutics, freely and fairly applied, fail to bring out a 
meaning that will be in harmony with the indubitable facts of 
nature. 

The same line of reasoning applies to moral and metaphys- 
ical questions as to physical. Let us fully apprehend the 
foundations of our mental philosophy before we make it the 
standard by which we are to test the morals of Scripture. 
And let us be scrupulously faithful in ascertaining what is the 
precise meaning of Scripture, before we pronounce it to be at 
variance with any first principle of ethical or metaphysical 
truth. 

The interpretation of the Book of Genesis, offered by the 
present writer to the public in 1863, was the issue of an at- 
tempt to ascertain the meaning of that venerable portion of 
holy writ according to exegetical rules, which reviewers have 
admitted to be just, and one has even pronounced it to be a 
series of truisms. Some results of this interpretation were, 
if not new, yet sufficiently remarkable. The record of the pri- 
meval creation was found to be contained in the first verse of 
Genesis. The state of at least a portion of the surface of the 
earth antecedent to the six days of creative effort is described 
in the second verse. The creation narrated in the remainder 



8 PREFACE. 

of the first chapter is partial in regard both to time and place, 
being accomplished in six literal days, and confined in range 
to that portion of the earth's surface which was declared in 
the second verse to be waste, void, and dark. The deluge is 
limited to a still narrower area, extending only to the region 
inhabited by man. The ark was designed and constructed to 
preserve only such animals of a domestic and harmless kind 
as might have become extinct, because they were limited in 
range. It did not, therefore, receive animals residing in more 
distant regions, or belonging to an earlier creation. The six 
days' creation, moreover, furnishes an instance of a local cen- 
tre of creation, and consequently favors the presumption of 
other local and previous centres of creation for different 
orders of animal and vegetable life. These, and other similar 
results, are elicited from the text, it is submitted, by a natural 
and unstrained interpretation. 

It may be said that in both these cases the terms of the 
descriptions are universal, and the interpretation has been 
uniformly so. But it is to be remembered that there was a 
universality at first both in regard to man and the objects 
known to him. And hence the terms of the text agree with 
the orignal compass of human experience. But when the 
terms land, animal, etc., come to have an extent of meaning 
beyond what was known or contemplated in primeval times, it 
is manifest that an error may be insensibly imported into the 
sense; because what applied to these terms in their original 
extension may not be true of the new parts of their extension. 
And this error will progressively increase in amount until the 
land becomes the terraqueous globe, and the animals comprise 
all the species existing thereupon. 



PREFACE. 9 

The present volume on Exodus is a second contribution 
to the exposition of the Old Testament, and to the prac- 
tical demonstration that a just interpretation of the volume 
of inspiration will obviate supposed difficulties, which have 
arisen mainly from misapprehension, and bring out more 
strikingly and uniformly its essential harmony with science, 
reason, and history. It removes, in the author's apprehen- 
sion, any impossibilities that may have seemed to lie in the 
natural events that are recorded in the narrative. This is a 
matter of the first importance, not only in regard to the cred- 
ibility of the history, but in reference to the origin and struc- 
ture of the whole Pentateuch. For while the historical validity 
of the document stands, the free handling, by which the text 
is parcelled out and distributed among a succession of authors, 
the earliest of whom lived centuries after the events occurred, 
loses the basis on which alone it can be securely erected ; and 
the evidence for its Mosaic authorship rests upon a foundation 
which cannot be moved. 

The resources for the vindication of the historical veracity 
of the narrative in Exodus are far from being exhausted. The 
elucidation of Egyptian history by the labors of Lepsius, 
Rawlinson, Hincks, Talbot, and others ; the restoration of its 
chronology, to which Dr. Hincks has contributed some most 
interesting and valuable papers ; the investigation of the his- 
torical and anthropological traces which remain of the migra- 
tions of ancient tribes ; and the conclusions of a thoroughly 
discussed theory of national and social economy, will yet 
throw a flood of light on the exodus of Israel and the events 
consequent upon it. The profounder investigations of ethical 
and political questions, and the prosecution of the abstruse 



10 PREFACE. 

but important and practical inquiry into the mode of training 
families and nations in the conception, reception, and perpetu- 
ation of true ideas, beliefs, and cognitions respecting God, and 
their practical relation to him, will also open the way for a 
juster comprehension of the meaning of Exodus, as well as 
the other books of the Pentateuch. 

Such, indeed, is the apologetic view of the bearing of those 
studies on the book. But the real character of the books of 
Moses, as the primeval portion of the word of God, precisely 
reverses this bearing. The Pentateuch is the light of revela- 
tion shedding its salubrious beams on those questionings of 
the spirit of man, on those themes which have been dark- 
ened and confused by the entrance of sin. And when men 
come to acknowledge the divine authority, and penetrate into 
the true meaning of this second book of it, this book of moral 
resolvings and teachings and doings, they will find in it a 
safe guide to new and sound views of ethical, political, and 
educational science. It would not be easy to exaggerate the 
importance of that book which recounts the separation of the 
chosen people of God from the world, the giving of the moral 
law, and the setting up of the tabernacle, which symbolizes 
the way of reconciliation and communion with God. 

The method of exposition pursued in this volume, as well 
as in that in Genesis, is the following: First, the general 
arrangement and division of topics in the book are brought 
under notice. Next, at the head of each section, a few promi- 
nent words are quoted and briefly expounded, for the sake of 
readers acquainted with Hebrew, who are supposed to peruse 
the section in the original. Then follows a translation of the 
section, which is designed to be a mere revision of the Author- 



PREFACE. 11 

ized Yersion. This the reader will compare with the original, 
or with the corresponding portion of his English Bible. The 
commentary then appended is designed to explain the mo- 
mentous import of the historical facts recorded, to mark their 
bearing on the highest interests of man, and to unfold the 
great principles of ethical and theological truth which are 
stated for his guidance and comfort. These are obviously the 
weightiest questions that can engage the attention of man. 
Certain and definite answers on these all-important topics are 
to be found in the books of revelation, and in no other quarter. 
We have, therefore, the strongest motives to examine the 
Scriptures, to make ourselves acquainted with their profoundly 
interesting contents, and to avail ourselves of the informa- 
tion they convey to escape the penal consequences of sin and 
enter upon the path of everlasting life. 

In pursuing such investigations as these, the writer has not 
occupied much space with those questions of literary criticism 
which are now ably discussed in introductions to the Bible 
and in Biblical dictionaries. He has refrained in general 
from bewildering the reader with the enumeration of a series 
of incongruous opinions, and has been sparing in the quota- 
tion of authorities for every particular statement made. In 
this way he has endeavored to economise space for a more 
full discussion, though in as concise a form as possible, of all 
that bears upon the ways of God with man. The difficulties 
that are started in the publications of the day have received 
a large share of attention ; and whatever seemed to be the 
best mode of obviating their force has been uniformly in- 
dicated in an incidental way. And, at the risk of some 
appearance of dogmatism, it has been made a point in all 



12 PEEFACE. 

important cases if possible to arrive at and to offer to the 
reader a decided opinion. 

The author has made some contributions towards a formal 
and direct reply to recent objections to the Pentateuch. But 
he is content for the present with offering to the reader a sec- 
ond instalment of the positive argument for the authority and 
historical validity of that venerable document in this attempt 
at the exegetical elucidation of the book of Exodus. The 
right understanding of the Book of God is all the vindication 
it needs with the earnest reader. 



INTRODUCTION. 



IX. EXODUS. 

The Book of Exodus is the record of a new development in the 
ways of God with man. This is the departure of the chosen people 
out of Egypt. They went into that land a family ; they came out a 
people. They entered as the honored and independent relatives of 
the Prime Minister of State ; they departed as the fugitive serfs of a 
despotic and oppressive government. They took up their abode in 
Goshen at a time when the nations still retained some knowledge 
of the true God, some remembrance of his covenant with man, and 
some sense of his claim upon their reverence; they marched forth 
from the land of their sojourning at an epoch when the iniquity of 
the Amorites was full, when, whatever might be the case with a rare 
individual or tribe, the nations had corrupted the knowledge of God, 
disregarded his covenant, and wandered into the devious paths of 
will-worship. Apostasy from the truth on the loftiest themes of his- 
tory had become the characteristic of the nations, when God brought 
forth from the bondage of Egypt into the sphere of conspicuous obser- 
vation the nation whom he foreknew, to be the keepers of his sacred 
oracles and ordinances, the accepted parties to his holy and gracious 
covenant, and the maintainers and eventual disseminators of his pure 
and spiritual worship on earth. This great act is the topic of the 
Book of Exodus. 

From this glance at its contents, it is manifest that it is not the full 
counterpart of Genesis. That venerable document is matched in 
grandeur of scope not even by the rest of the Pentateuch, but only by 
the remainder of the volume of revelation. It opens with a creation, of 
which man forms the prominent object ; the Old Testament closes with 
the anticipation of a new creation (Isa. lxv. 17), in which also man will 
hold the conspicuous place ; and the New Testament records the aton- 



14 INTRODUCTION. 

ing obedience of Christ and the quickening work of the Holy Ghost, 
as the guarantee and earnest of that new creation, the consummation of 
which it again announces to the church (2 Pet. iii. 13). Genesis also 
touches upon the history of the whole race of man, and even after the 
call of Abraham traces the peaceful intercourse subsisting between the 
chosen family and the rest of mankind. Exodus marks the full-grown 
antagonism between the chosen nation and the heathen world, records 
the violent separation between the two, and then confines itself mainly 
to the history of the party that remained in communion with God. Its 
distinguishing event, the exodus, is accordingly the prototype of that 
great event in the experience of the individual in which he comes 
out from the bondage of the flesh into the freedom of the Spirit, as 
well as of those great occasions in the history of the church in which 
it reasserts its spiritual life and liberty, and passes with all the deter- 
mination of new-born principle from the wilful service of sin into the 
conscientious obedience of holiness. This coming out is a process con- 
tinually going on during the history of the church until all have come 
out, and the doomed world is given over to everlasting destruction. 

It is the manner of Scripture to signalise the primary event in any 
given series as a lesson and example to all future generations. In 
Genesis are recorded all kinds of origins or births, and among others, 
the birth of Isaac, the seed of promise. In Exodus is recounted the 
deliberate action of the new-born, in coming out of the land of bon- 
dage. The wilderness between this land and the land of promise, the 
troubles, temptations, and failings of such a state of life, the giving of 
the law to a new-born and emancipated people, the setting up of the 
ordinances of a holy religion, are all typical events, prefiguring others 
of a like nature, but of still grander and grander import. They do 
not stand alone on memory's tablet, but embody a principle of con- 
stant value, which comes out in a series of analogous events in the 
course of human affairs. They are standing monuments in the great 
field of the past, written in legible characters on the page of history 
for the instruction of coming days. They lodge in the mind of man 
the principles which they exemplify, never afterwards to be dislodged 
from the hereditary wisdom of the race. History has been said to be 
philosophy teaching by examples, and this is nowhere so true as in 
that history which describes events from a heavenly point of view, 



INTRODUCTION. 15 

selects them with a divine intuition of their exemplary character, and 
places them on record for the express purpose of instilling into men's 
hearts the great principles of sacred truth. 

The scope of the Book of Exodus, however, is not to be limited to 
the mere fortunes of the chosen people. Even if it stood alone, its 
communications could not be confined to so narrow an area. But pre- 
ceded by the Book of Genesis, and forming a continuation of that 
work, it has an essential and important bearing on the destinies of the 
whole race of man. It details a certain stage of that momentous pro- 
cess, by which the covenant of God with man is to be upheld, and its 
benefits secured for a growing proportion of our fallen race, until at 
length the main body, at least, of all kindreds and tongues returns to 
God. This imparts a new dignity to the record now before us, and 
imposes a higher significance on the characteristic events which it 
celebrates. The chosen nation are interesting no longer merely on 
account of themselves as an end contemplated by the Great Designer, 
but on account of their paramount importance as a means of incal- 
culable blessing to the whole family of man. The oracles of God flow 
forth in gradual stream from the mouths of their prophets. The sys- 
tem of symbolic ordinances shadowing forth the way of salvation is 
set up and administered among them. The Messiah, who was revealed 
in these oracles and foreshadowed by these ordinances, is to be 
born of this people to make a propitiation not only for their sins, but 
for those of the whole world, fulfil the requirements of the ancient 
covenant on behalf of man. and so to receive the heathen for his 
inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession. 
In the exodus of this peculiar people out of Egypt, therefore, we are 
in the very pathway of that great transaction by which he with whom 
one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day, will 
eventually bring all the nations of man again into reconciliation with 
himself. This is the sublimest enterprise in which the interests of 
man can be concerned. 

This book is a regular and orderly piece of composition. Hence it 
admits of easy analysis into its component parts. The exodus itself 
is the central event of the drama, and is embraced in six chapters 
(xiii.-xviii.) That which precedes naturally falls into two parts : the 
first of which recounts the bondage of Israel in Egypt, with the rise 



16 



INTRODUCTION. 



of the leader in this great movement, in six chapters (i.-vi.) ; the sec- 
ond narrates the ten plagues or momentous strokes of judgment, by 
which the opposition of the Egyptian monarch is overcome, and the 
way opened for the exodus of the liberated people, in other six chap- 
ters (vii.-xii.) The portion of the book which follows the main act is 
also divided between two important topics, the law-giving and the 
tabernacle. The former occupies six chapters more (xix.-xxiv.), and 
the latter extends over the remaining sixteen ; of which seven (xxv.- 
xxxi.) contain the specifications concerning the tabernacle, its furni- 
ture, and officials ; three (xxxii.-xxxiv.) relate a wild outbreak of 
will-worship among the people who had just escaped from bondage ; 
and the last six (xxxv.-xl.) record the construction of the tabernacle 
and the commencement of the divinely instituted national worship. 

This book is composed in the customary style and method of the 
sacred writer. It forms a complete whole, and closes with a crowning 
event. The writer has this end in view throughout the work, and 
advances to it with undeviating tenacity of purpose. Hence he omits 
those collateral topics, which are not essential to the main thread of 
his narrative, and tend to disturb the unity and mar the effect of the 
whole. These he will take up hereafter in their appropriate con- 
nection. 

The following table exhibits the arrangement of the book, as in- 
dicated above : 



Section I. 
Bondage in Egypt. 



Section II. 
The Ten Plagues. 



Section III. 
The Exodus. 

Section IV. 
The Lawgiving. 



I. Israel oppressed in Egypt, i. 

II. Moses born and bred, ii. 

III. Moses called and commissioned, iii., iv. 

IV. Moses enters on his office, v., vi. 

V. The first three plagues, vii., viii. 19. 

VI. The second three plagues, viii. 20 -ix. 12. 

VII. The third three plagues, ix. 13 -x. 

VIII. The tenth plague. Passover, xi., xii. 

IX. The escape of Israel, xiii. -xv. 

X. Journey from Elim to Sinai, xvi.-xviii. 

XI. The Moral Law, xix., xx. 

XII. The Civil Law, xxi.-xxiv. 



Section V f XIII. Plan of the Tabernacle, xxv.-xxxi. 

The Tabernacle 1 x ^- Tne first Dreaca of tlie Covenant, xxxii 

[ XV. The Tabernacle made and set up, xxxv.-xl. 



COMMENTARY. 



PART III. 

SECTION I.— THE BONDAGE IN EGYPT. 

I. ISRAEL OPPRESSED IN EGYPT. — Ex. i. 

11. D^a tribute, levy; task, work done by a serf for his Lord. Keil 
understands by it the serf or socager himself. But Esther x. 1 is 
against this. DhQ Pithom, lTei0w in Sept., is identified with lTaTov//,os 
in Herod, ii. 158 ; or, omitting the Egyptian article, ®ovfx in the later 
geographers. Brugsch derives it from pa, abode, and Turn or Atum, 
the sun after setting. D&ESn Raamses, 'Pafxea-arj in Sept. It is ren- 
dered " son of Ra," the sun, who was worshipped at On or Heliopolis. 

15. JTnsna Shiphrah, brightness, beauty. nsiB Pu'ah for |-i3^S^ splen- 
dor (Simonis). 
/ 16. d^a potter's wheel, birth-stool. This word occurs only twice 
in Scripture. In Jer. xviii. 3 it denotes the potter's wheel. In the 
present passage it seems to signify the receptacle into which the new- 
born infant comes from the womb. Both these utensils may have 
been originally of stone (13$). Gen. xxviii. 11. 

21. Bifja Dfib £235*1 And made them houses, gave them not only 
husbands, but children, who constitute families. The pronoun dfi is 
masculine. But the plural masculine is occasionally applied to the 
female. (See Gen. xxxi. 9). 

22. lao a river, in Memphitic iaro, in Sahidic iero, a term gen- 
erally applied to the Nile. 

I. 1. And these are the names of the sons of Israel, who 
came into Mizraim ; every man and his household came with 
Jacob. 2. Reuben, Simon, Levi, and Judah, 3. Issakar, Zeb- 



1$ ISRAEL OPPRESSED IN EGYPT. 

ulun, and Benjamin, 4. Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. 
5. And all the sonls that came out of the thigh of Jacob were 
seventy souls : and Joseph was already in Mizraim. 6. And 
Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation. 
7. And the sons of Israel were fruitful, and increased and 
multiplied, and waxed exceedingly mighty ; and the land was 
filled with them. If 1. 

8. Then arose a new king over Mizraim, who knew not 
Joseph. 9. And he said unto his people, Behold, the people 
of the sons of Israel are more and mightier than we. 10. 
Come, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply, and it 
come to pass that a war falleth out, and they also join with 
those that hate us, and fight against us, and get up out of the 
land. 11. And they set over them taskmasters to afflict them 
with their burdens : and they built treasure-cities for Pharoh, 
Pithom and Raamses. 12. And as they afflicted them, so 
they multiplied and spread : and they were vexed because of 
the sons of Israel. 13. And Mizraim made the sons of Israel 
serve with rigor. 14. And they embittered their life with 
hard service, in clay and in brick, and in all service in the 
field ; with all their service which they laid on them with 
rigor. 

15. And the king of Mizraim said to the Hebrew midwives, 
of whom the name of the one was Shiphrah and the other 
Puah. 16. And he said, When ye deliver the Hebrew women 
and look upon the stool, if it be a son, then ye shall kill him, 
and if it be a daughter, then she shall live. 17. And the mid- 
wives feared God, and did not as the king of Mizraim spake 
unto them, but saved the men-children alive. 18. And the 
king of Mizraim called the midwives, and said unto them, 
Why have ye done this thing, and saved the men-children 
alive ? 19. And the midwives said unto Pharoh, Because the 



EXODUS I. 1-7. 17 

Hebrew women are not like the Mizrite women ; for they are 
lively, and have brought forth ere the midwife comes in unto 
them. 20. And God dealt well with the midwives : and the 
people multiplied and waxed very mighty. 21. And it came 
to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made them 
houses. 22. And Pharoh charged all his people, saying, 
Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every 
daughter ye shall save alive. ^f 2. 

It is the custom of the sacred writer to note the great moments 
and turning-points in the history of God's dealings with man, and to 
pass lightly over the current of events that flow naturally from the 
tendency thus given. The entrance into Egypt was one of those 
leading movements ; the departure from it is another. The inter- 
vening period of two hundred and ten years is summed up in the 
chapter before us, if we except certain events relative to Jacob and 
Joseph, which wind up the settlement of the chosen family in Egypt, 
and a few circumstances concerning Moses which are introductory to 
the national migration. The present chapter recounts the extraor- 
dinary increase of the family of Israel, and the ineffectual measures 
taken by the king of Egypt to check their growth. 

1-7. The increase of the chosen seed. Here the historian, after 
the manner of Hebrew composition, goes back to the descent of 
Israel into Egypt as the starting-point of the new train of events 
about to be related. And these are the names. The recapitulation of 
the heads of houses in Jacob's family prepares the way for the vast 
augmentation about to be recorded. Of Israel. This word is here 
well chosen. The significance of the name, and the occasion of its 
application, still lived in the memory of the patriarch's posterity 
The outward privileges of the prince that had power with God and 
with man descended to them, and the inward character that corres- 
ponded with such a parentage was no doubt to be found in many of 
them. And now that the estrangement of the nations from the true 
God was become general and obvious, it was the more necessary that 
the chosen family should be reminded by this sacred name of the high 
destiny to which they were called. Every man and Ms house. They 
3 



18 ISRAEL OPPRESSED IN EGYPT. 

were already distributed into twelve houses, when they went down 
into Egypt. The sons of Leah are placed first, Benjamin son of Ra- 
chel next, and afterwards the four sons of the handmaids. Seventy 
souls. Jacob himself is included among the seventy souls, the natural 
head being essential to the unity and integrity of the family. The 
Sept. here has seventy-five, (see on Gen. xlvi. 27). Joseph is now 
mentioned apart from the others, because he had been in the country 
before them. 6. And all that generation. As some of those who 
descended with Jacob were mere infants, more than half of the two 
hundred and ten years would have elapsed before their decease. This 
would bring us within twenty years of the birth of Moses. 7. The 
rapid growth of Israel into a nation is the fact of this paragraph. It 
is expressed, as usual in Hebrew, by a climax of verbs : were fruit- 
ful is taken from the vegetable world, in which the increase varies 
from a small multiple to several hundreds-fold ; increased (spawned, 
swarmed) is borrowed from the finny tribes, in which the rate of in- 
crease rises to many myriads ; multiplied is a general word referring 
to number ; and waxed exceedingly mighty is a similar phrase alluding 
to the strength which numbers confer, composed of a verb and an 
adverb repeated, and therefore well adapted to complete the climax. 
Then follows the result, the land was filled with them. It is quite 
evident that this statement implies a rate of increase amazingly higher 
than that which was usual in those days, and still higher than any 
that can be found in the present crowded state of the world. The 
circumstances were favourable for such an increase. They had scope 
and verge in a wide and thinly-peopled country ; and they were 
placed in the best of the land (Gen. xlvii. 11). These advantages 
alone, however, could not account for their accelerated growth ; for 
the Egyptians were not much less favored in these respects. But the 
blessing of Jehovah, the God of promise, was now realized to them. 
After a long delay the word came to Israel, the third patriarch : " I am 
God Almighty ; be fruitful and multiply : a nation and a congregation 
of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins " 
(Gen. xxxv. 11). We see also the effect of the migration into Egypt. 
In Kenaan the inevitable tendency was to lose all family distinction, 
and merge into the nations of that country. Only in a border land, 
on territory specially ceded to them by a people who had a national 



EXODUS I. 8-22. 19 

antipathy to their pursuits, could a select nation have grown up with- 
out coalescing in blood, in language, and in institutions with the sur- 
rounding tribes. Hence in Goshen the chosen family grows in two 
hundred and ten years into the chosen nation, destined to witness 
among the nations for the unity, spirituality, and mercy of the Creator 
of all. 

8-22. The unwarrantable measures taken by the king of Egypt to 
check the growth of the people. These were three : to impose slave 
labor, to enjoin the midwives to slay the male children as soon as born, 
and to command his people to throw the male infants into the river. 
A new king over Mizraim. Joseph was thirty-nine years old when his 
kindred settled in Egypt, lived to the age of one hundred and ten, and 
therefore died seventy-one years after that settlement. We may sup- 
pose that all the generation that came down into Egypt died one hun- 
dred and ten years after the same event. In the interval between this 
and the birth of Moses arose this " new king over Mizraim." The 
chronology of the early period of Egyptian history has not yet been 
definitely settled. It is probable, however, that at the time in ques- 
tion there were two or more contemporary sovereigns reigning in 
different parts of what we now call Egypt : one at Thebes, the capital 
of Pathros, the land of the Pathrusim (Gen. x. 14), perhaps of the 
17th dynasty of Manetho ; another at Memphis, the capital of Mizraim 
proper, possibly of the 6th dynasty of the same author ; and not 
impossibly a third at Xois, in the western part of the Delta. Other 
petty sovereignties, that may have existed, need not be considered. 
The Hyksos, or shepherd kings, not being designated by the seat 
of empire, may have been identical with the sovereigns of Xois or 
Memphis, or distinct, and even superior to both. In the last case 
the seat of this sovereignty may have been at On or Bubastis. The 
dynasty with which the Israelites now came into contact was either 
this last supposed one, or that of Memphis, which was convenient to 
On, and to the land of Goshen. Who knew not Joseph. This new 
king may have been the founder of the 7th dynasty, or a contemporary 
sovereign of the 16th. At all events, he came into power at least 
forty years after the death of Joseph, and about one hundred years 
after he ceased to take an active part in state affairs. This allows a 
sufficient time for Joseph and his services to be forgotten. " Not to 



20 ISRAEL OPPRESSED IN EGYPT. 

know " is in scripture phrase to disregard. This new sovereign was 
not actuated by any sense of the benefits which that distinguished 
Israelite had conferred upon his country. 9. The people of the 
sons of Israel. They are now recognized as no longer a family, but 
a community. More and mightier than we. This marks out the 
speaker as the sovereign of a comparatively small principality, ham- 
pered, perhaps, on the northwest by one power, and on the south by 
another. Such a prince would feel himself embarrassed by the unpar- 
alleled growth of this foreign people within his borders, and might 
naturally express himself in the terms here employed, though the 
Israelites were only approaching to his own subjects in numbers and 
strength (vs. 10). Join with those that hate us. An intimation is 
here given that this king of Mizraim was by no means free from the 
dangers of rivalry and ambition, and was therefore far from being 
the sole monarch in the valley of the Nile. Those that hate him 
and his subjects are the other sovereigns in Xois, Thebes, and per- 
haps other parts of Egypt. He might be exposed also to attacks 
from the east, even though he were himself an invader from that 
quarter. And get up out of the land. Though he disregarded the 
political services rendered by Joseph, yet he is acquainted with the 
origin of the race, their claim to be free, and their expectation at 
some time to dej>art from Egypt. He found them valuable, whether 
as subjects or as serfs, and he does not wish to part with them. This 
incidental notice proves that the Israelites were still mindful of the 
God of their fathers, and cherished the hope of one day entering 
into possession of the promised land. We are elsewhere informed 
that Ezer and Elead, sons of Ephraim, were slain in a raid by the 
men of Gath, and that his granddaughter Sherah built Bethhoron, 
the nether and the upper, and Uzzen-sherah (1 Chron. vii. 21, 24). 
Whence it appears that in the days of their freedom, before this 
new king arose, they not only looked forward to a settlement in 
Palestine, but actually asserted a position in the country, at least for 
a time. This naturally connects itself with the share which Jacob 
had given to Joseph above his brethren (Gen. xlviii. 22). It is 
not unlikely that the district acquired by Jacob was actually claimed 
and taken possession of by Ephraim, for whom it was designed, and 
perhaps enlarged by conquest in that early period of the residence 



EXODUS I. 11-21. 21 

of Israel in Egypt. Whether the new king of Mizraim came from 
the region of Ephraim's early conquests history has not enabled ua 
to say. 

11. Taskmasters were superintendents of forced labor. This was 
customary among all ancient governments, and especially among the 
Egyptians, whose pyramids and other great works were mostly the 
product of slave labor. Treasure-cities were magazines for the stor- 
age of provisions and other commodities of war and police. Pithom 
and Raamses were situated on the borders of Egypt and Arabia. 
The former is called by Herodotus an Arabian town, and said to 
be near the eastern bank of the Nile, a little above Bubastis, at 
the commencement of the ancient canal in the valley of the Natron 
Lakes. The latter was in the same valley, farther to the east, near 
the site of Heroopolis, with which many identify it. Lepsius finds 
it in the ruins of Abu Kesheb and Heroopolis in Mukfar. Osborne 
endeavors to show that Pithom is Damietta, and Raamses Migdol, 
which he places at the head of the Gulf of Suez. These magazine 
cities on the border were well situated for troops making inroads 
into the eastern world from Egypt. The Sept. here adds On ; but 
this was in existence in the time of Joseph (Gen. xli. 45J, and the 
reading is not otherwise supported. 

12—14. So they multiplied, The policy of the Egyptian king was 
ineffectual. The purpose of God was not set aside, but only pro- 
moted by these measures. They were vexed. These Egyptians were 
probably hard pressed on their southern frontier by a superior 
power. They had also a rooted aversion to the Israelites. With 
rigor. By compulsion they exacted hard service in clay, in brick, 
and in field labor. Agriculture was attended with considerable labor 
in the higher grounds of Egypt, on account of the necessity of watering 
them by artificial means. Bricks were the usual building material 
in Egypt. The monuments show that foreigners were employed in 
these servile works under native overseers. 

15-21. Pharoh next applied to the Hebrew midwives to check the 
population by murdering the male infants. They are called Hebrew, 
a generic term applying to all the descendants of Heber (see on Gen. 
xiv. 13). Two midwives only are mentioned by name. About 
ninety years before the exodus, and therefore ten before the birth 



22 ISRAEL OPPRESSED IN EGYPT. 

of Moses, the Israelites were about thirty thousand, and at the time 
of his birth about fifty thousand ; as they doubled in about fifteen 
years, and the starting number, including wives, was about one 
hundred and twenty. From this we learn to moderate our estimate 
of the extent of that kingdom with which the Israelites were in 
contact. All Egypt, from the Mediterranean to the first Cataract, if 
united under one government, could not be afraid of thirty or fifty 
thousand men, women, and children. A petty state, having its centre 
at Heliopolis or Bubastis, and overshadowed by one or two southern 
powers, might feel some apprehension of a small people that was 
doubling itself in fifteen years. Of thirty or fifty thousand, much 
less than a third would be married women, and it may be that of 
these not more than a tenth would need or seek the aid of a pro- 
fessional midwife ; and if on an average one birth in each family 
took place every two years, the two midwives would not have to 
attend more than one or two births every day, even if personal 
attendance were always given. But we may presume that they had 
a large number of deputies or assistants acting under their direction 
to meet all the demands on their services. 16. The stool. Some 
have supposed this to mean the mouth of the womb ; but it seems 
more likely that it was the basin or vessel in which the new-born 
infant was received from the womb. 17. God, in the original the 
God, — the true, everlasting, almighty God, who was infinitely 
higher than Pharoh. 19. For they are lively, of a vigorous frame. 
This was quite true in point of fact. Among the Bedawin to this 
day, and others whose bodies are well developed by pastoral occu- 
pations and loose clothing, child-bearing is comparatively easy. The 
accompanying statement was also correct in the majority of cases, 
if not in all ; especially if the mothers hearing the order of Pharoh 
did not admit the midwife, and she did not intrude, if possible, 
until the child was born. Of the exceptions the midwives, evading 
Pharoh's question, say nothing. 21. And he made them houses, gave 
them not only husbands, but also children, which were regarded as 
a boon and an honor by wives. It is conceivable that these women 
were unmarried, or if married, childless, and therefore at leisure to 
ievote themselves to the aid of those who were bearing children. 
The word them is by some referred to the people in the previous 



EXODUS II. 23 

verse. But this construction is harsh, and the verse in this sense 
adds nothing to what has been said before. Here, as usual, God 
requites like with like. The midwives save alive the offspring of 
the nation: God deals well with them in giving them offspring. 

22. Being baffled by the midwives, Pharoh, as a last resort, com- 
mands all his people to cast the male infants into the Nile. This 
"bloody mandate appears to have been given very shortly before the 
birth of Moses. These measures of the king, indeed, may have followed 
one another in rapid succession; and the magazine cities, though com- 
menced before, may not have been completed till long after the issue 
of the last of them. The period of serfdom and oppression will in 
this case last not much longer than eighty or ninety years, namely 
from a few years before the birth of Moses to the exodus. 



II. MOSES BORN AND BROUGHT UP. -Ex. 2. 

3. araa the papyrus of the Nile ; r. absorb, drink up. Hence called 
bibula papyrus (Lucan iv. 136). 

5. yrr\ wash the body, or any part of it. M3 wash clothes by 
treading with the feet. 

10. hd£ Mosheh. The word, if taken to be Hebrew, signifies 
drawing. By Josephus its Greek form Mwvcr^s is resolved into the 
Coptic /xu) water, and vcrrjs saved from. Mouu water, and sa drag, 
may be the Coptic elements of the name. The corresponding He> 
brew roots are probably contained in d'rg water and aba lift ; though 
the Hebrew language does not deal freely in compounds. In explain- 
ing the origin of the name, however, the author employs a verb which 
contains the letters that are in the Hebrew form of the word. He 
either translates the name given by the princess, as Melanchthon from 
Schwarzerdt, or she spoke a dialect of Hebrew. The latter might be 
the case, if she was of the family of the Hyksos, who are supposed to 
have come from Phoenicia or Arabia. 

18. Vx^-i Re uel, friend of God. 

21. rn'SS Zipporah, bird, sparrow. 

22. dttj-ja Gereshom, stranger, exile ; r. ia^a drive out, compounded 



24 MOSES BORN AND BROUGHT UP. 

of *ia stranger and Dfej == Bd there. The latter is not necessary tc 
warrant the expression of the text ; as the native speakers of the lan- 
guage had a much freer and wider sense of the relation among roots 
than many of our philologers. Paronomasia plays a part in their 
etymology. They felt a relation between "p|D and naj3 Gen. iv. 1, 
^na and bba Gen. xi. 9, na and wy* . The rules of philology, in- 
stead of correcting, should be gathered from these among other 
phenomena. 

II. 1. Then went a man of the house of Levi, and took a 
daughter of Levi. 2. And the woman conceived and bare a 
son ; and she saw that he was goodly, and hid him three 
months. 3. And she could not longer hide him, and she took 
for Mm an ark of rushes, and daubed it with asphalt and with 
pitch : and she put therein the child, and laid it in the flags 
by the river's brink. 4. And his sister stood afar off, to wit 
what would be done to him. 

5. And the daughter of Pharoh went down to bathe in the 
river, and her maidens walked along by the river's side : and 
she saw the ark among the flags, and sent her handmaid, and 
she fetched it. 6. And she opened it, and saw the child, and 
lo the babe wept : and she had pity on him, and said, This is 
one of the Hebrew's children. 7. Then said his sister to 
Pharoh' s daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of 
the Hebrew women, and she shall nurse the child for thee ? 
8. And Pharoh's daughter said to her, Go. And the maid, 
went and called the child's mother 9. And Pharoh's daughter 
said unto her, Take this child away and nurse him for me, and 
I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child 
and nursed him. 10. And the child grew, and she brought 
him to Pharoh's daughter, and he became her son, and she 
called his name Moses ; and said, Because I drew him out of 
+he water. 



exodus n. 25 

11. And it came to pass in those days, that Moses grew up 
and came out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens : 
and he saw a Mizrite smiting a Hebrew, one of his brethren. 
12. And he turned this way and that way, and saw that 
there was no man : and he smote the Mizrite, and hid him 
in the sand. 13. And he came out the second day, and lo 
two Hebrews were striving : and he said unto the wrong-doer, 
Why smitest thou thy neighbour ? 14. And he said, Who 
made thee a ruler and a judge over us ? Intendest thou to 
slay me, as thou slewest the Mizrite ? And Moses feared, and 
said, Surely the thing is known. 15. And Pharoh heard this 
thing, and sought to slay Moses ; and Moses fled from the 
face of Pharoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian ; and he sat 
by the well. 

16. Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters : and 
they came and drew, and filled the troughs to water their 
father's flock. 17. Then came the shepherds and drove them 
away : and Moses stood up and saved them, and watered their 
flock. 18. And they went to Reuel their father ; and he said 
Why are ye come so soon to-day ? 19. And they said, A 
Mizrite delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds : and he 
also drew enough for us, and watered the flock. 20. And he 
said unto his daughters, And where is he ? Why is it that 
ye have left the man ? Call him, and let him eat bread. 
21. And Moses was content to dwell with the man : and he 
gave Zipporah his daughter to Moses. 22. And she bare a 
son, and he called his name Gershom ; for he said, I have 
been a stranger in a foreign land. ^f 3. 

23. And it came to pass many days after, that the king of 
Mizraim died : and the sons of Israel sighed by reason of the 
service, and cried ; and their cry went up to God by reason 
of the service. 24. And God heard their groaning, and God 



26 MOSES BORN. 

remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and 
with Jacob. 25. And God saw the sons of Israel, and God 
had regard unto them. § 1. 

In the preceding chapters is recorded the extremity of the chosen 
seed. This hard pressure of affliction was not unneeded. In the 
abundance and prosperity of Goshen they had well-nigh forgotten the 
absolute and exclusive claim of God on their homage and obedience. 
Nothing but the strong hand of oppression could bring them to a sense 
of their dependence and their duty. But they were a chosen race. 
Much is implied in this. The Most High does not allow them, as he 
might otherwise have done, to merge into the superstition and apos- 
tasy of the surrounding nations. He has, moreover, a purpose to serve 
by them, an end ulterior to their own spiritual benefit. He intends 
through them to • perpetuate the knowledge of God, to bring in the 
Redeemer into the world, to effect a redemption that will be sufficient 
for all the nations of mankind, and finally to bring all the world into 
reconciliation with himself and with themselves. He will not be 
thwarted in this sublime and benign purpose. He has therefore laid 
the heavy hand of chastisement on this people to bring them to repent- 
ance. He will not, however, leave them to perish by the murderous 
devices of Pharoh. He will gradually prepare them to shake off the 
fetters of Egypt, and take their departure for the land of promise. 
And his providence is at work in another direction. Immediately 
after the issue of the bloody edict for the extermination of the people 
the deliverer is born who is to head the movement of national emanci- 
pation, and is preserved from destruction by the indirect influence of 
the hostile monarch himself. 

In this chapter, accordingly, we have the parentage, birth, preserva- 
tion, education, and exile of Moses, the coming deliverer of God's 
people. The historian reverts to a point of time anterior perhaps to 
any of the despotic measures of the sovereign, and enters upon another 
line of events. 

1-4. The parentage and birth of Moses. A man of the house of 
Levi, Amram (Ex. vi. 20). A daughter of Levi, Jokebed. Hence 
it appears that Moses was a Hebrew of the Hebrews. Levi was 



exodus n. 1-10. 27 

forty-four years old when he came down to Egypt. We may sup- 
pose that Jokebed was born to him when he was one hundred years 
of age, and therefore sixty-six years after the immigration. Amram 
may have been born about the same time with his aunt, or even some- 
what earlier. For his father Kohath (Ex. vi. 18) may have been 
twenty years old when he came to Egypt, and consequently eighty- 
six when Jokebed was born. About fifty years after, we may sup- 
pose, the nephew and aunt were married. There was not yet any 
law prohibiting the marriage of such relatives. A year after their 
marriage, the daughter mentioned in the narrative may have been 
born, and fourteen years after the same date Moses, who was eighty 
years old at the exodus. These numbers (66 -[- 50 -]— 14 -(-80) 
make up two hundred and ten, the number of years during which 
the Israelites sojourned in Egypt. 

2. Goodly, perfect, as if it had come directly from the hands of God 
without contracting any outward stain from its parents. Such is the 
force of Stephen's explanatory phrase, dcrreto? rw ®e<3, beautiful be- 
fore God. And hid him three months. Maternal affection, the beauty 
of the child, and hope in God, combined to produce this attempt at 
his preservation. 3. An ark of rushes. This reminds us of the ark 
of the flood (Gen. vi. 14). The rush was the papyrus, growing to 
the height of ten feet, and formerly abounding on the banks of the 
Nile. The root was used for fuel, the stem for making boats, and 
the bark or rind for making sails, shoes, garments, and paper. The 
papyrus rolls are found in the mummy-cases to this day, and may be 
unrolled and read. Asphalt and pitch — the former to fill up the 
interstices and make all smooth, the latter to make the little vessel 
water-tight. Put therein the child. This is a mother's last effort to 
save the doomed babe. It may appear feeble and hopeless ; but it 
was done in faith, and it proved successful. 4. His sister is set to 
watch the result. 

5-10. The rescue of Moses from a watery grave. The king's 
daughter, with her attendants, comes forth to bathe in the Nile, the 
waters of which were considered sacred and salutary. In a prim- 
itive state of society the females of the East enjoyed a greater 
degree of liberty than in after times, when they began to be guarded 
with jealous care in the seclusion of the harem, and concealed on 



28 MOSES PRESERVED. 

a journey from the common gaze by the long and thick veil of the 
East. With all a female's fond affection she has pity on the weep- 
ing babe. Scripture is very choice in picking out the circumstances 
that give effect to the scene. This is one of the Hebrews' children. 
She is aware of the royal edict, and comprehends the whole affair at 
a glance. This tiny vessel is the last effort of a mother's affection 
to cast on Providence the care of her babe. 7. His sister, certainly, 
whether prompted or not, is equal to her task. She appears at the 
proper time, and puts the fitting question. 8. Pharoh's daughter is 
too glad to be relieved of her perplexity by saying, Go. The maid, 
the well-grown and marriageable virgin, as the term implies. This 
makes it probable that she was now about thirteen years of age at 
least, as we have supposed. 10. And she called his name Moses. 
His parents, most probably, had given him a name during the time 
he was with them, before he became the adopted son of Pharoh's 
daughter. But in ancient times the same individual often received 
different names from successive memorable incidents in his life (Gen. 
iii. 20, x. 25, xvii. 5, xxv. 30.) The adopter had a right to give 
a name to the adopted, and this name has prevailed over that which 
may have been given by his parents. Josephus calls Pharoh's 
daughter Thermuthis ; Eusebius calls her Merrhis ; but these deter- 
minations are founded on chronological combinations which have not 
yet been established. 

It is quite evident that Pharoh's court was contiguous to the re- 
gion occupied by the Israelites. This favors the notion of a small 
kingdom in the eastern part of the Delta, to the extent of which 
a tribe of thirty or fifty thousand would bear some notable relation. 
It is plain, too, that the royal residence was for the time being not 
far from the Nile. This will agree very well with Bubastis being 
at least the occasional abode of the royal family. 

It is probable that the exterminating edict was withdrawn at or 
soon after the rescue of Moses. The caprice and passion of a despot 
might hastily issue such a decree. But after-thoughts would soon 
suggest the folly of cutting off this useful horde of serfs in a single 
generation. The debasement of the feelings by forced labor — which 
would render them more serviceable as slaves, and less formidable 
as rebels — is a much more satisfactory measure to an arbitrary gov- 



EXODUS II. 11-15. 29 

eminent. Moreover, the natural feelings of humanity revolt against 
the indiscriminate and continued murder of male infants. The meas- 
ure would be unpopular with his subjects, and with the members 
of his own family as soon as Moses appeared there, and would there- 
fore soon be abandoned. Accordingly we hear no more of it. 

11-15. The flight of Moses. In those days. This phrase here 
covers a space of forty years or more. Moses greio up, arrived at 
maturity. He came out unto his brethren. It is evident that the tie 
between Moses and his parents had never been broken. The charms 
of a court life for nearly forty years had not closed his ears against 
the cries of his afflicted people. His heart felt that the sufferers 
were his brethren. He saw a Mizrite smiting a Hebrew — one of 
the taskmasters correcting a serf under his charge, or, more probably, 
a private individual, in the mere arrogance of his political superiority, 
maltreating one of the inferior race whom he has chanced to meet. 
Moses, whose spirit had not been broken by the bondage common to 
the rest of his race, instantly taking the side of the oppressed, slays 
the Egyptian, and buries him in the sand. He may not have in- 
tended to deal a fatal blow, or he may not have been able to avoid it 
in self-defence ; but no such explanation is offered in the text. We 
may not wish to stand over this deed in all its length and breadth ; 
but we must not denounce it, as we might if it were done in our day. 
In a time and place where the wild will and the high hand have the 
rule, he that lifts the hand not- for selfish ends, but for the defence of 
the weak, is not to be hastily condemned. He has much of the spirit 
of the magistrate, where the law and its administrator are wanting. 
13. The next day he sees two Hebrews striving. He expostulates 
with the wrong-doer, who rudely repels his interference with the 
alarming question, " Intendest thou to slay me, as thou slewest the 
Mizrite ? " These were the noticeable acts which decided Moses's 
future course. They tell much of what was working within his breast. 
For the last thirty years we may imagine him now and then stealing 
out of the royal precincts to look on the burdens of his people. Oft 
with a sore heart may the young patriot have returned to the palace, 
contrasted the freedom, luxury, and mental culture around him with 
the degradation of that race which he knew was chosen of God to 
hold the foremost rank and achieve the noblest ends for humanity. 



30 MOSES MAEEIED. 

The hope of their deliverance was cherished. The wish to take part 
in it was gathering strength with his years. He was at length pre- 
cipitated into action by the scenes before him. But the rude question, 
" Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us ? " prompted, perhaps, 
by his courtly guise and long isolation from his people, quenched his 
ardent aspirations. Having broken with Egypt, and been rejected by 
his kindred, he had no course for the present but exile. (See Acts 
vii. 21-29 ; Heb. xi. 24-26). 

Moses was now forty years of age (Acts vii. 22, 23). This period 
of physical and intellectual growth he had spent at the court of 
Pharoh, and therefore had received the highest education the country 
could afford. The annual overflow of the Nile imparting a constant 
fertility to the soil rendered Egypt pre-eminently an agricultural 
country. The necessity of markiDg the time of its rise led to the 
study of astronomy and chronology. To determine the height to 
which it rose in successive years, and the boundaries of landed 
property which were liable to be obliterated by its waters, they were 
constrained to turn their attention to geometry. To the successful 
prosecution of mathematical science, and for the recording of the 
observations needful for its practical application, the art of writing was 
essential ; and the papyrus reed afforded the ready material for such 
records. In these circumstances, the heavenly bodies, the Nile, and 
the animals of their country, became absorbing objects of attention, 
and eventually of worship. Music was also diligently cultivated in 
Egypt. Moses must have been familiar with the language, literature, 
and science of Egypt, as well as with the corruptions of its theology 
This was the one side of his character. On the' other side he was 
closely allied by intercourse and feeling with his kindred, and there- 
fore intimately acquainted with the monuments of sacred history 
which were handed down to them, the elements of a pure theology, 
natural and revealed, which had been preserved by them, their present 
sufferings, and their future destiny. "We cannot conceive a providen- 
tial training more admirably adapted for the part he was to perform 
as the deliverer, legislator, and historian of the people of God. 

15. Midian was the son of Abraham, and half-brother of Isaac. 
The Midianites were, therefore, the kinsfolk of Moses. A great part 
of Arabia, indeed, was occupied with descendants of Heber, the an- 



EXODUS II. 16-25. 31 

cestor of Abraham and the Israelites. Thither it was natural for 
Moses to flee. The land of Midian lay partly southwest of Moab 
and partly on the coast of the Aelanitic Gulf, to the southwestern 
extremity of which the tribe seems to have penetrated. And he sat 
by the ivell, the well-known place of refreshment and rest for the 
traveller, and of common resort for the natives of the country. 

16-22. The settlement and marriage of Moses in Midian. The 
priest of Midian. The ancient order of elders held a place in the 
polity of Midian (Num. xxii. 4). The supreme government seems to 
have been a commonwealth or confederacy, as there were five kings 
of- Midian in the time of the entrance of Israel into the promised land 
(Num. xxxi. 8), and two princes and two kings are mentioned in the 
days of Gideon (Judg. viii 3, 5). As in primitive times the sacred 
and civil functions were generally united in one person, the priest of 
Midian was probably at least an elder in the state ; but there is no 
reason to suppose that he was not a priest in the strict sense of the 
term, as the civil functionaries of Midian, we find, were designated by 
several other terms. TTe have already met with the early custom 
of daughters tending flocks (Gen. xxix. 6). They often needed 
defenders, as the weak are often wronged by the strong. A Mizrite. 
Moses is so regarded, as he probably wore the garb and spoke the 
language of Egypt, and may have stated that he was a fugitive from 
that country. Wliy is it that ye have left the man ? A feeling of 
innate modesty, or a proper sense of their dependence as children, 
may have prevented the invitation proceeding immediately from 
themselves. He gave Zipporah, his daughter, to Hoses. She was a 
descendant of Abraham, and so of the kindred of Moses. The con- 
nection was therefore suitable. 

23-25. The sacred writer now resumes the general thread of the 
narrative, and describes with a few touches the crying oppression 
under which the people of Israel had now long labored. Many days 
after. The whole of the events following occurred during an interval 
of forty years, the period of Moses's sojourn in Midian. The king of 
Mizraim died. This may have taken place shortly after Moses left 
the country ; but it did not abate the sufferings of the people. His 
successor pursued the same cruel policy. Their hard service com- 
menced some time before the birth of Moses, and had now therefore 



32 MOSES CALLED. 

lasted more than eighty years. Sighed and cried. The haughty spirit 
which denounced the defender and adviser as a self-constituted ruler 
and judge was now subdued. The wail of deep affliction ascended 
from broken hearts to heaven, to the living God. God heard their 
groaning. He hears all groanings. But he also remembered his 
covenant with their fathers (Gen. xvii. 2, 21, xlvi. 2-4). He not 
only heard, but saw the sons of Israel under the oppressor. He not 
only observed, as it were, with the outward senses, but knew with the 
inward mind, and acknowledged them to be the seed of the covenant. 
Such is the manner in which the narrator lays emphasis on the 
earnest attention with which the Lord regards the affliction of his 
people. 



in. MOSES CALLED AND COMMISSIONED. — Ex. iii., iv. 
CHAP. TIL— MOSES CALLED. 

1. i-itYi Jithro, profit, pre-eminence ; r. be over and above, yyn 
"Ohoreb, dry place ; r. drain. 

14. PPFiK "ndx WW* Ehjeh, for I am. We approach with rever- 
ence to the discussion of this remarkable sentence. It has been ren- 
dered in two different ways : (1.) I am, because I am ; and (2.) I am 
that which I am. The latter, we presume, is the meaning of the Eng- 
lish version, I am that I am. There are three decisive objections to 
this rendering: 1st. It takes the whole sentence to be the name, like 
Shear-jashub (a remnant shall return), Maher-shalal-hash-baz (haste 
to the spoil, speed to the prey), the names of Isaiah's children. But 
the first word, Ehjeh, is the whole name, as is evident from the 
remainder of the verse : " Thus shalt thou say unto the sons of Israel, 
Ehjeh hath sent me unto you." 2d. It lays the emphasis on that 
"which is not expressed in the name. It therefore conveys no informa- 
tion : for it states in words that God is that which he is ; but does 
not tell what that is. It is not distinctive of God ; for the saying, I 
am that I am, may be applied to any being whatever ; and is, more- 
over, a mere triviality. It is, if anything, a mere intimation of the 
inscrutable mystery of the divine nature ; yet it does not even affirm 



EXODUS III. 33 

that he is the Inconceivable, and therefore Ineffable. And even if it 
did, this bare thought is not fitted to implant confidence or induce 
persuasion in the minds of the Israelites. And 3d, the sentence thus 
rendered does not express the idea conveyed in the word Ehjeh, 
which is substituted for it in the latter part of the verse. The former 
is at best purely negative ; the latter is purely positive. Hence the 
two forms of the name would be inconsistent in meaning. 

The latter rendering being on these grounds untenable, the former 
must be regarded as correct. It agrees with the Vulg. Ego sum, qui 
sum, and the Sept. 'Eyw ei/x,i 6 wv, in making part of the sentence the 
name, though it differs from them in taking the first word, not the 
latter two, as the name. It affords a good sense. It finds in the 
answer of God the new name, and the reason of it, whether we trans- 
late "ids who, as, for, because, or since. I am (is my name), for I 
am. It gives the same name in the two parts of the verse, and the 
same sense in each. It also agrees with the structure of the Hebrew 
and with the Masoretic pointing, in which there is a pause after the 
first word, thus : M 5 Pi ; M . It only remains to ascertain what is the 
meaning of Ehjeh. 

1st. The verb Pi^Pi refers not to the abstract existence of the school- 

T T 

men, but to the concrete being of the unsophisticated Hebrew mind, that 
is, being as active and obvious to the senses, (see on Gen. i. 2) . This, 
when applied to the Eternal, means, therefore, not absolute beginning 
or essential change of being, but that eventual modification of being 
which is implied in engaging in a new course of action manifesting the 
agent to have being. To be, in a word, is to act in such a way as to 
manifest one's being to a competent observer. 2d. P^Pl^ is that form 
of the verb which denotes the incipient stage of an action or event. 
It means, therefore, I go to he, I am on the point of proving myself to 
be by a noticeable action. In regard to the chosen seed I have here- 
tofore mainly promised ; I am now about to appear in performance of 
my promise. 3d. The verb is in the first person, because the speaker 
is naming himself with all the emphasis of personal identification. It 
is obvious that this was a strikingly significant and appropriate name 
for Moses to bear to the people, as it announced a present God, come 
down to fulfil his covenant and perform his promise to the afflicted 
descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 
5 



34 MOSES CALLED. 

III. 1. And Moses was keeping the flock of Jethro his 
father-in-law, the priest of Midian : and he led the flock behind 
the wilderness, and came to the mountain of God, to Horeb. 

2. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of 
fire out of the midst of the bush : and he looked, and, lo, the 
bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. 

3. And Moses said, Let me now turn aside and see this great 
sight, why the bush does not burn. 4. And the Lord saw 
that he turned aside to see ; and God called unto him out of 
the midst of the bush, and said Moses, Moses. And he said, 
Here am I. 5. And he said, Draw not nigh hither : put off 
thy shoes from thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest 
is holy ground. 

6. And he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of 
Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And 
Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God. 
7. And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my 
people who are in Mizraim, and have heard their cry by 
reason of their exactors ; for I know their sorrows. 8. And 
I came down to deliver them out of the hand of Mizraim, and 
to bring them up out of that land unto a good and large land, 
unto a land flowing with milk and honey ; unto the place of 
the Kenaanite, and the Hittite, and the Amorite, and the 
Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite. 9. And now, 
behold, the cry of the sons of Israel is come unto me : and I 
have also seen the oppression wherewith Mizraim oppresseth 
them. 10. And now come, and I will send thee unto Pharoh : 
and bring forth my people the sons of Israel out of Mizraim. 

11. And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go 
unto Pharoh ; and that I should bring forth the sons of Israel 
out of Mizraim ? 12. And He said, For I will be with thee, 
and this shall be unto thee the token that I have sent thee : 



EXODUS III. 35 

when thou hast brought forth the people out of Mizraim ye 
shall serve God upon this mountain. 

13. And Moses said unto God, Lo, I shall go to the sons of 
Israel and say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent 
me unto you ; and they shall say to me, What is his name ? 
what shall I say unto them? 14. And God said unto Moses, 
I am, for I am. And he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the 
sons of Israel, I am hath sent me unto you. 

15. And God said again unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say 
unto the sons of Israel, The Lord, the God of your fathers, 
the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, 
hath sent me unto you : this is my name forever, and this is 
my memorial unto all generations. 16. Go and gather the 
elders of Israel and say unto them, The Lord, the God of 
your fathers hath appeared to me, the God of Abraham, Isaac, 
and Jacob, saying, I have surely visited you and seen that 
which is done to you in Mizraim. 17. And I said, I will 
bring you up out of the affliction of Mizraim unto the land of 
the Kenaanite, and the Hittite, and the Arnorite, and the 
Perizzite, and Hivite, and the Jebusite ; unto a land flowing 
with milk and honey. 18. And they shall hearken to thy 
voice ; and thou shalt go, thou and the elders of Israel, unto 
the king of Mizraim, and ye shall say unto him, The Lord, the 
God of the Hebrews, hath met with us ; and now let us go, 
we pray, three days' journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice 
to the Lord our God. 19. And I know that the king of 
Mizraim will not let you go, but by a mighty hand. 20. And 
I will stretch out my, hand and smite Mizraim with all my 
wonders, which I will do in the midst thereof : and after that 
he will let you go. 21. And I will give this people favor in 
the eyes of Mizraim : and it shall come to pass that when ye 
go, ye shall not go empty. 22. And every woman shall ask 



36 MOSES CALLED. 

of her neighbor, and of her that sojourneth in her house, 
jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and garments, and ye 
shall put them on your sons and on your daughters, and ye 
shall spoil Mizraim. 

Slowly and constantly for the last eighty years the oppression of 
Israel has been growing to a head, and now the Lord himself appears 
on the scene. He has not, indeed, been all that time an idle observer 
of their miseries. In the silence and secrecy of his proyidence the 
deliverer has been growing up, and is ripe for his task at the very 
hour of need. The Lord now comes to call him to his work. 

The chronology of the interesting events about to be recorded is not 
minutely laid down. To give definiteness, however, to our concep- 
tions of the course of things, it is desirable to fix approximately the 
shortest period in which they might have occurred. The earliest day 
for the full moon on the 15th of Nisan, the first day of unleavened 
bread, was the 2 2d of March. It is possible for the events between 
the vision at Horeb and the first passover to have taken place with 
some degree of probability in, at the least, eighty days. This number 
we obtain by allowing for the journey from Horeb to Midian and 
thence to Egypt thirteen days ; for the first interviews with the people 
and with Pharoh seven days ; for eight plagues, at seven days each, 
fifty-six days ; and for the plague of darkness four days, The follow- 
ing table will make the arrangement plain 

Horeb to Egypt, till Jan. 13 Murrain, till Feb. 24 

First Interview, Jan. 20 Boils, Mar. 3 

Plague of Blood, Jan. 27 Hail, Mar. 10 

Frogs, Feb. 3 Locusts, Mar. 17 

Lice, .Feb. 10 Darkness, .Mar. 21 

The Fly, Feb. 17 

The particulars of this presumptive arrangement will be noticed as 
we proceed. Some have protracted the interval to nearly ten months, 
in order to bring the first plague to the end of June, when the Nile 
begins to rise and assume a red and turbid appearance. But the first 
plague is of a nature entirely different from the periodical change of 
color at the swelling of the Nile ; and moreover it is highly improba- 
ble that the ten plagues were spread over a period of nine months. 



EXODUS III. 1-5. 37 

1-5. The Lord appears to Moses. Jethro, the pre-eminent. We 
have again and again to notice instances of the same individual having 
several names. He who was the eminent in one sense was in 
another the friend of God (ii. 18). The names are quite consistent. 
Behind the wilderness. Jethro's dwelling was doubtless east of 
Horeb, probably on the shore of the Gulf of Akabah ; but we cannot 
define it more closely. A wilderness lay between it and the springs 
and green valleys intersecting the range of Horeb, which was there- 
fore behind the wilderness, because it was both on the other side 
from Jethro's home, and to the west of the intervening region. Tiie 
mountain of God. This range of hills earned this name, if not from 
some previous manifestation of God, yet from the signal displays of 
his presence and power which are about to be narrated. 2, 3. The 
angel of the Lord. See on Gen. xvi. 7. In a flame of fire. The 
primary effect of the flame of fire is to consume ; the secondary, to 
purify. When transferred to spiritual things, that which is fuel to the 
fire is moral evil (xxix. 14), and that which remains after its work 
is done is the pure, the holy (Num. xxxi. 23). Fire, however, does 
not make pure, but merely leaves the pure untouched. The Lord has 
often appeared in fire (xix. 18, xxiv. 17 ; Lev. ix. 24) The bush. 
This was a species of thorn. The hawthorn, according to Shaw and 
Pococke, abounds in the region of Horeb. Was not consumed. The 
fire was supernatural, and did not affect the vegetative life of the bush. 
This it was that arrested the attention of Moses. It was truly a 
" great sight," an unusual and notable phenomenon standing out from 
the ordinary course of nature. The mode of the divine appearance is 
not without design. It has a significance fitting the occasion. The 
bush that lives unscathed by the lambent flame that winds round all 
its leaves and branches, is an emblem of that which is pure and holy, 
and therefore of the true church of God in the furnace of affliction. 
The lowliness of the shrub comports well with the seeming feebleness 
and insignificance of the people of God, The flame of fire corre- 
sponds with the fiery trial through which they have had to pass, that 
the lusts of the flesh, which had grown up in Egypt, might be con- 
sumed, and faith and its kindred virtues be left behind in all their 
vigor and beauty. 

4, 5. Tlie Lord saw God called. It would be the affectation 



38 MOSES CALLED. 

of criticism to investigate in every case the ground for the distinctive 
use of these names Yet there is no doubt that the writer used them 
with a clear consciousness of their meaning. In mentioning that the 
" Lord saw " Moses turning aside to see, he regarded him, we must 
suppose, as the Great Being who has manifested himself and is pres- 
ent in the work of creation ; and in adding that " God called " unto 
him, he had before his mind the supernatural, invisible sphere out of 
which the Eternal Omnipotent uttered his voice, Hoses, Moses, as in 
Gen. xxii. 11. This is the personal call with which the commission 
of Moses begins. Draw not nigh. Do not intrude with daring heed- 
lessness into the sacred presence of the divine majesty. Put off thy 
shoes. The custom of putting off the shoes before entering an apart- 
ment, lest they should defile the floor, passed in the East into a mark 
of respect, and then of reverence. Hence it becomes a habitual out- 
ward sign of an inward feeling of regard for the place and presence 
of a superior, or of the Supreme. 

6-10. This passage closes with the commission to Moses. After 
the premonitory sentence comes the introduction. / am the God of 
thy father. " Thy father" is here used in a generic sense, to denote 
any ancestor from his immediate father up. The nations of the earth 
had now almost universally forsaken the God of their first father, the 
knowledge of whom had been clearly handed down to them by Noah, 
and betaken themselves to other gods, whom their fathers knew not, 
and who were no gods. Moses is here reminded of his holy ancestry, 
and apprised that he who now addresses him is the Great Being who 
made heaven and earth, and created man after his own image. But 
more particularly he is also the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, 
who entered into a special covenant of salvation with the fathers of 
Israel, by means of which the primeval covenant with man may be 
upheld, and all the Gentiles reconciled to God. Hid his face. The 
unexpected utterance of his name, the caution against too near an 
approach, the announcement of the divine presence, awakened a solemn 
awe in the mind of Moses, which discovered itself in hiding his face, 
lest he should be guilty of any profane gazing upon the apparition of 
the Holy One (Gen. xvi. 13). 

7-10. After the introduction we have the commission. The pre- 
amble recounts the cause which moved the Lord to the present 



EXODUS III. 7-12. 39 

interposition. / have surely seen. I have been deeply concerned to 
observe the affliction of my people. For I know their sorrow. The 
for here is explanatory. I have not been inattentive to them, I have 
been cognizant of all that was taking place, and therefore I have seen 
and heard everything. 1 came down (Gen. xi. 5). God is personally 
interested and active in his people's cause. A good and large land, 
not inferior to Goshen in point of fertility, and affording scope for a 
growing population. A land flowing with milk and honey, a prover- 
bial description of a choice land abounding in the grasses and flowering 
plants from which milk and honey come. The place of the Kenaanite. 
The Kenaanite and his derivative tribes originally amounted to twelve 
(Gen. x. 15-18). In the time of Abraham ten tribes occupied the 
land of promise, of which only five are known to be descendants of 
Kenaan (Gen. xv. 19-21). Of the six here enumerated, history 
traces five to Kenaan. Of the former list the Girgashite has now 
retired into obscurity, and the Hivite has recovered a prominent posi- 
tion. Of those not traceable to Kenaan only the Perizzite is men- 
tioned. The others were probably beyond the boundary at present 
contemplated. 

9, 10. And now, behold, the cry of the sons of Israel. It is notice- 
able that their oppression had lasted for eighty years. But now at 
length their cry indicated that affliction had done its work. In the 
anguish of their hearts they turned from man to God. They longed 
to be free from the bondage of Egypt, and they now saw no hope of 
escape but in God. Their cry goes up to heaven, and God appears 
on earth for their deliverance. / will send thee unto Pharoh. The 
purpose of the vision now unfolds itself to the mind of Moses. 

11, 12. Moses puts in many pleas to be excused from this grave 
task. The Lord patiently and encouragingly hears all these scruples 
of his creature's mind, gives a satisfactory explanation, and applies a 
complete remedy to every difficulty, until there is nothing in the mind 
of Moses but an unreasonable shrinking from an arduous and honor- 
able task. Even then he provides a full relief for the trembling heart 
in the eloquence and company of his brother Aaron. Thus gradually 
and tenderly he prepares the mind of his servant for acquiescing in, 
and then heartily devoting himself to, the high office to which he is 
called. 



40 MOSES CALLED. 

The first plea is his personal unworthiness. Who am 1? He 
remembered the grandeur of the court and the haughtiness of the 
monarch. He was aware that the present sovereign was a stranger 
to him. He called to mind the rude reception he had met from one 
of his own kinsmen, when he formerly interfered in their behalf. All 
the difficulties of the enterprise crowded on his mind, and he felt 
himself inadequate to its achievement. For I will be with thee. The 
Xord is not moved from his purpose by the objection of Moses. 
He obviates it by an undeniable argument. I will be with thee. 
The power of God with us certainly surmounts all difficulties. This 
promise will hereafter be embodied in a name, Ihmanuel — God with 
us. Here it is framed in a sentence importing the active presence of 
the Almighty with his chosen servant. This has been the source of 
the church's life, strength, and hope in all ages. This shall be the 
token. To find himself and the rest of Israel serving God on this 
mountain will hereafter be to him a proof of his divine commission, 
and the assurance of this fact, which will undoubtedly follow the 
promise now given, is calculated to encourage him to undertake the 
task with cheerfulness and hope. 

13, 14. Moses now starts a difficulty he might have with the people. 
They might ask him what is the name of him from whom he came. 
It is important to determine the real bearing of this question. (1.) We 
have repeatedly met with the custom in early times of giving several 
names to the same individual, as Jacob and Israel, Esau and Edom, 
Reuel and Jethro. This was not even peculiar to the East. Paris 
and Alexander, Lucumo and Tarquinius, Henry and Beauclerc, are 
familiar to us in other lands. The reason of this custom was that names 
were then significant, and served to mark out the individual by some 
peculiarity in his person, some trait in his character, or some event 
connected with his history. If several of these circumstances might 
occur in the case of a finite man, how much more may we expect them 
to come out in the contemplation of the infinite God. Accordingly, 
among a primitive people, his names grow in number as the manifold 
aspects of his all-perfect character break upon their view. Pie is 
called Elohim, the Everlasting, when his antecedent eternity and afr 
solute independence are contemplated. He is termed Jehovah, the 
Self-existent, the Author of all existing things, when he is regarded 



EXODUS III. 13-14. 41 

as the free and personal God, manifesting his being to the intelligent 
universe by the works of his creative power. He is named El 'Elion, 
the Most High God, when his unattainable pre-eminence above all 
created things comes into view. He is designated El Shaddai, the 
Almighty God, when he wishes to set before the mind his unconquer- 
able omnipotence. (2.) In the next place, Moses did not require to 
ask the name of God, if we mean by that the term by which he was 
commonly known. He was already familiar with his name. If the 
Book of Genesis was not yet before him in a written form, the tradi- 
tions of his fathers were graven on his memory. Moreover, God had 
already announced himself to him as the God of his fathers. And, 
farther, God does not present in his reply any one of all the names by 
which he had been previously known. Hence it is plain that the ob- 
ject of Moses in putting this question could not have been to ascertain 
any of the former names of God. (3.) The name, in the conception of 
Moses, was the title by which the present aspect of God to his people 
was to be designated. And the meaning of his question is, what is 
the principle of thy being or movement of thy will which is now to 
display itself to thy people ? 

The Lord is prompt in meeting this new difficulty of Moses. The 
immediate answer to his question is a new name, in some respect dif- 
ferent in meaning from all his former designations. Ehjeh (Ehyeh), 
I am, in the sense, I now proceed to make myself known to be, by 
giving being to my promise to Abraham of more than four hundred 
years' standing. Although the phrase I am does not immediately 
convey all this to English ears, yet it is so brief and appropriate in its 
general sense, and so hallowed in our associations, that we would not 
venture to alter it. And even in this simple form, when coupled with 
a promise of deliverance such as Moses was commissioned to announce, 
it suggests the thought that his people will soon find that he is by the 
acts he performs. Still further, it is probable that the present tense 
of our English verb originally meant, and it is certain that it still 
retains among its meanings, the initial stage of an action or event, as in 
the phrase, I go to town. It is, therefore, the only form fit to express 
the Hebrew incipient. The use of the first person is a plain indica- 
tion that the name is intended not merely to distinguish an individual, 
but to express a sentiment that will animate the people with hope and 
6 



42 MOSES CALLED. 

resolution. Such a form is strictly appropriate only in the mouth of 
the speaker ; and, accordingly, it is not afterwards employed as a name 
of God. All this is in keeping, not with a mere name, but with 
a word of moral power fitted to stir the heart, and meet the present 
occasion. 

Moses was now, therefore, armed with a name of potent significance 
by which to designate him by whose authority he was to approach the 
people. He could say, he in whose name I come is about to realize 
the promise of the land of Kenaan made to the seed of Abraham ; and 
he has deigned to embody this fact in a significant name, indicating 
his present adherence to his covenant with your fathers. 

15-22. Special directions are now given to Moses regarding his 
commission. First, the authority under which he acts is formally 
stated. The Lord, that is, Jehovah. We have already discussed the 
import of this name (Gen. ii. 4). It stands in relation to Ehjeh, as 
a habit of the active powers is to a particular volition. Jehovah is 
the author of reality in general ; Ehjeh is he who is on the point of 
giving reality to a certain thing or event. The two names then refer 
to the same attribute of the divine nature, but in different points of 
view ; the one presenting it as a potence in habitual exercise ; the 
other as a potence passing into a new course of action. Hence we 
can understand how the Lord, after announcing himself to Moses by 
a new form of appellation, fitted to the special occasion, immediately 
reverts to the well-known and long-established name which involves the 
same property of his nature. In accordance with this identity of the 
quality signified by the two names, it is fitly added, " This is my name 
forever, and this my memorial unto all generations." The name re- 
fers to the objective and sensible sign ; the memorial to the subjective 
and mental concept of the Divine Being. He that gives effect to his 
uttered resolve is the author of eternal life to his church. 

16, 17. Next, the course he is to pursue with regard to the people 
of God is pointed out. Gather the elders of Israel. Officers of this 
class were common to all mankind in primeval times. We have 
already met with them in Egypt (Gen. 1. 7). We here find them 
established in Israel antecedent to the legislation of Moses. Their 
name is derived from the quality of age, which confers experience and 
claims authority. They were perpetuated through all the variations 



exodus in. is. 43 

of the commonwealth of Israel, and descended from them to the Chris- 
tian church, in which they still maintain their place. / have surely 
visited you, personally come to see you, and all that is done to you, in 
order to take the proper steps for your deliverance. 

18. The manner in which he is to approach the king of Egypt is 
next laid down. They shall hearken to thy voice. They have been 
chastened by the oppression of Egypt, and will now listen gladly to a 
duly accredited deliverer. Thus far Moses will find his reception 
encouraging. Thou and the elders of Israel. A venerable deputation 
of the heads of the people are to accompany Moses to Pharoh. Jeho- 
vah, the God of the Hebrews. To Israel this epithet of Jehovah would 
be encouraging ; to Pharoh it is merely explanatory. We learn from 
it that the Shemites of the line of Heber continued to acknowledge 
the true God after the other nations had forsaken him. In other 
words, the revelation of God made to the common fathers of the 
human race remained in its purity among the Hebrews after it had 
been essentially corrupted among the other nations of the earth. It 
is plainly implied that the gods of Egypt were now essentially differ- 
ent from the God of the Hebrews ; as will presently appear in the 
most conspicuous manner. Hath met with us, with Moses in the bush 
at Horeb, and with us in the signs he has wrought through him before 
us (vs. 30). Let us go three day's journey in the wilderness. This 
request seems at first to be put in a politic form, as if to secure a 
favorable answer. This, however, was quite unnecessary, since the 
Almighty was about to bring his people out of Egypt by a strong 
hand. It is merely expressed in a style of reserve and moderation. 
It was not requisite to reveal to Pharoh, who was in a hostile mood, 
all the intentions of God concerning his people. Hence Pharoh is 
merely informed that the God of the Hebrews has met with them; 
and their request is limited to the first step to be taken in obedience to 
his will. A three days' journey is mentioned, simply because this would 
take them clear out of Egypt, one day being employed in setting out, 
one in marching, and the third in coming to a resting-place. And a 
sacrifice is added, because this is the first act of obedience. The for- 
mer involves their departure out of Egypt ; the latter commences the 
perfect service of God. This is exactly the mode in which God trains 
his people. The immediate duty and the immediate blessing are set 



44 MOSES CALLED. 

before them, and these are pregnant with all further and higher duties 
and blessing. So he deals with Pharoh. But there is not only re- 
serve, but moderation in the request. It makes the smallest demand 
consistent with actually leaving, and assigns the highest reason for 
taking this step, namely, the command of God. By sedulously avoid- 
ing everything harsh and extravagant in its terms, it affords the least 
possible occasion for Pharoh to harden his heart, and dismiss the 
petitioners with an obstinate refusal. At the same time it is a bold 
and open assertion of liberty. If the people had formed a secret plot 
to escape from the land of their bondage, we should have been slow to 
condemn, if not prompt to applaud. But this is not the Lord's way. 
If Pharoh had condescended to ask at once, " Who shall go ? Will 
your wives and children go ? Will your cattle and your other move- 
ables be taken with you ? " he would have received, as he eventually 
did, a ready and candid reply. But such questions were in reality 
superfluous. Pharoh was well aware that bondsmen who had marched 
three days out of the land of the oppressor, with their families and 
goods, would not return without compulsion. 

19, 20. Moses is further forewarned of the unwillingness of Pharoh 
to grant the request of the people, and of the means by which this 
unwillingness is to be overcome. And I know. Fore-knowledge is as 
certain to God as after-knowledge. But by a mighty hand, the hand 
of God doing his wonders in the land of Ham. The servant of the 
Lord is therefore not to be discouraged by the unavailing opposition 
of Pharoh. 

21, 22. The Israelites are not to go out empty-handed. The so- 
journ of Joseph in Egypt as a bond-slave had been the means of 
preserving the inhabitants of that country from extermination by a 
seven years' famine. The residence of his kindred in Goshen had 
always been a benefit, and not a burden, to Egypt. And for the last 
two or three generations the Israelites had been bond-slaves, toiling 
for the prosperity and aggrandisement o£ the nation. They had, 
therefore, an undoubted right to ask, and the Egyptians were event- 
ually glad to give them, some aid for their journey. Shall ask, as a 
gift, if not a compensation for long unrequited services. The word 
cannot mean to borrow here, when the Egyptians were perfectly 
aware that the Israelites would not return. Of her that sojourneth 



EXODUS IV. 4& 

in her house, either a visitor or a mistress whom she served, in any 
case her superior, and perhaps owner. Spoil Mizraim. The Egyp- 
tians would be so overcome by abject distress as to be ready to part 
with a considerable portion of their wealth, in order to get rid of a 
people whose presence menaced them with utter extermination. 



CHAP. IV. MOSES OBEYS THE CALL. 

14. "i'-i^x Aharon, perhaps bright or tall; r. perhaps akin to "list 
light, or "til hill. 

18. w = ■hrv; The latter is the reading of one MS. of the Sam., 
Syr., Vulg., and Arabic. The former, of the other MSS. and of the 
Sept. ; of the latter in both parts of the verse. It seems an instance 
of diversity of language. 

IV. 1. And Moses answered and said, But behold they will 
not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice : for they will say, 
The Lord hath not appeared unto thee. 2. And the Lord said 
unto him, What is this in thy hand? And he said, A rod. 
3. And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the 
ground, and it became a serpent ; and Moses fled from before 
it. 4. And the Lord said unto Moses, Put forth thy hand, 
and catch it by the tail. And he put forth his hand and seized 
it, and it became a rod in his hand. 5. That they may believe 
that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, 
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared unto 
thee. 6. And the Lord said unto him again, Put now thy 
hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom ; 
and he took it out, and lo his hand was leprous as snow. 
7. And he said, Put thy hand again into thy bosom. And he 
put his hand again into his bosom ; and he took it out of his 
bosom, and behold it was restored as his other flesh. 8. And 
it shall be, if they will not believe thee, nor hearken to the 



46 MOSES OBEYS THE CALL. 

voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the 
latter sign. 9. And it shall be, if they will not believe even 
these two signs, nor hearken unto thy voice, that thou shalt 
take of the water of the river, and pour on the dry land : and 
the water which thou takest out of the river shall become 
blood upon the dry land. 

10. And Moses said unto the Lord, Lord, I am not 
eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto 
thy servant ; for I am slow of mouth and slow of tongue. 
11. And the Lord said unto him, Who hath made man's 
mouth, or who maketh dumb or deaf, or seeing or blind ? 
Do not I the Lord ? 12. And now go, and I will be with 
thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt speak. 13. And 
he said, Lord, send now by whomsoever thou wilt send. 

14. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses ; 
and he said, Is there not Aaron, thy brother, the Levite ? I 
know that he can speak well : and also behold he cometh forth 
to meet thee, and he shall see thee, and be glad in his heart. 

15. And thou shalt speak to him, and put words in his 
mouth ; and I will be with thy mouth and with his mouth, 
and will teach you what ye shall do. 16. And he shall speak 
for thee to the people, and it shall be that he shall be to thee 
for a mouth, and thou shalt be to him for God. 17. And this 
rod shalt thou take in thy hand, wherewith thou shalt do the 
signs. ^[ 4. 

18. And Moses went and returned to Jether his father- 
in-law, and said to him, Let me go now and return to my 
brethren who are in Mizraim, and see whether they be yet 
alive. And Jethro said unto Moses, Go in peace. 

19. And the Lord said unto Moses in Midian, Go, return to 
Mizraim, for all the men who sought thy life are dead. 
20. And Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them upon 



EXODUS iv. 47 

the ass, and returned to the land of Mizraim : and Moses took 
the rod of God in his hand. 

21. And the Lord said unto Moses, When thou goest to 
return into Mizraim, behold all the wonders that I have put 
in thy hand, and do them before Pharoh ; and I will harden 
his heart, and he shall not let the people go. 22. Then thou 
shalt say unto Pharoh, Thus saith the Lord, Israel is my son, 
my first-born. 23. And I said unto thee, Let my son go, and 
serve me, and thou didst refuse to let him go : behold, I will 
slay thy son, thy first-born. 

24. And it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the 
Lord met him, and sought to kill him. 25. And Zipporah 
took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and 
cast it at his feet : and she said, For a spouse of blood art 
thou to me. 26. And he left him : then she said, A spouse of 
blood, because of the circumcision. ^ 5. 

27. And the Lord said to Aaron, Go to meet Moses in 
the wilderness. And he went and met him in the mount of 
God, and kissed him. 28. And Moses told Aaron all the 
words of the Lord who had sent him, and all the signs which 
he had commanded him. 29. And Moses and Aaron went, 
and gathered all the elders of the sons of Israel. 30. And 
Aaron spake all the words which the Lord had spoken unto 
Moses ; and did the signs in the eyes of the people. 31. And 
the people believed : and they heard that the Lord had visited 
the sons of Israel, and that he had looked on their affliction ; 
and they bent their heads and bowed themselves down. 

The Lord here obviates all the remaining difficulties of Moses, who 
then obtains leave of Jethro to return to Egypt (vs. 1-18). Setting 
out on his journey, he is met by Aaron, and on his arrival is well 
received by the people (vs. 19-31). 

1-9. The third plea of Moses is the incredulity of the people. 



48 MOSES OBEYS THE CALL. 

There is no manifestation of God to Israel on record since he appeared 
to Jacob on the way to Egypt (Gen. xlvi. 2) ; and this was two 
hundred and ten years ago. And Moses had now been in exile forty 
years, and would be a comparative stranger to most of his nation 
The Lord meets this plea by supplying him with credentials that 
could not be gainsaid. These are in the form of certain supernatural 
wonders, of which the Lord now exhibits two in the sight of Moses 
for the confirmation of his own faith, and directs that along with 
these a third should be performed in Egypt to demonstrate to the 
people and to Pharoh that he was an ambassador from the God of 
the Hebrews. It has been generally felt that these wonders must 
have been selected with a due regard to the occasion, and are, there- 
fore, not only miracles attesting a divine message, but signs shadowing 
forth pertinent truths to all the parties concerned. The early mind 
was peculiarly open to the figurative method of instruction. The 
hieroglyphic mode of writing was a most ingenious and elaborate 
application of symbols to the use of recording events. 

2-5. The first sign given to Moses contains a plain allusion to his 
change of office. A rod. This is the instrument and symbol of his 
present condition, — the shepherd's crook. Cast it on the ground, an act 
symbolic of his abandonment of that condition. It became a serpent, 
a dangerous and formidable creature, from which Moses fled. There 
is no distant allusion here to the repugnance of Moses to the new 
office which was proposed to him. The serpent, moreover, was the 
ostensible tempter and traitor in the garden of Eden, and therefore 
the representative of the author and abettor of evil. And in par- 
ticular the asp, a kind of serpent, played a conspicuous part in Egyp- 
tian mythology. It was the emblem of the goddess Ranno, the snake 
of Neph, the hieroglyphic of " goddess," and the sign of royalty. 
From this last use it was called Uraeus, from ouro, king, and 
/?acrtXto-Kos, royal (Rawlinson's Herod, ii. 105). Egypt was, there- 
fore, not obscurely pointed out, as the adversary of God and his 
people at this time. Moses shrunk from grappling with this hostile 
power. Put forth thy hand and catch it. This indicates Moses's 
reluctant acceptance of his new office. It became a rod in his hand. 
What was formidable to weak faith and hesitating obedience became 
a rod of power as soon as the decisive act was performed. The shep- 



EXODUS IV. 1-9. 49 

herd's rod is now the rod of God, with which he is to conduct the 
people of God from Egypt to the promised land. That they may 
believe. Moses is empowered to perform this miracle before the 
people, that they may believe his divine mission. Hence it appears 
that one end of a miracle is to authenticate a divine communication 
and be a warrant to faith. 

6-8. The second sign points to a renewal of nature in Moses and 
the people. Put now thy hand into thy bosom. The hand is the 
emblem of power. The putting of it into the bosom is merely the 
withdrawing of it from action into rest and security. Taking it out is 
preparing to resume activity. Leprous as snow. Leprosy is a loath- 
some disease of the skin prevailing in Egypt and the southern parts 
of Asia. It appears in spots on different parts of the body, which 
sometimes become confluent and cover the whole body. It is called 
white from the color assumed by the part affected and the hair that 
grows on it. Hence the phrase, " leprous as snow." It is distinguished 
as Lepra Mosaica, from the notice taken of it by Moses in his legis- 
lation (Lev. xiii. 14). The leprosy is not employed in Scripture 
as a figure for sin as an act or habit. But the leper is declared 
unclean ; and moral uncleanness is the consequence of such sin. The 
hand of Moses, when brought out for action is found to be leprous — 
not impotent, as in paralysis, but denied, and defiling whatever it 
touches. This is a striking figure of the unclean or unhallowed 
power of fallen man, which works evil and not good. It is typical of 
the old man in Moses and in Israel, especially now when they are 
contaminated with the manners and customs of idolatrous Egypt. 
Put thy hand again into thy bosom. On drawing it forth from the 
bosom it is now found to be restored as the healthy flesh. The 
degenerate power of Moses was unfit for the work of God. Its 
sanctification is represented by the restoration of the leprous hand. 
And as Moses is consecrated to the task of leading the people out of 
Egypt, so are they to be consecrated to the Lord as a chosen genera- 
tion to show forth his praise and accomplish his purpose. The voice 
of the first sign. By a beautiful figure these signs are described as 
having a voice, because they speak to the people of the presence and 
power of God with his messenger. 

9. This sign evidently refers to Egypt. The Nile was venerated 
7 



50 MOSES OBEYS THE CALL. 

as a divinity, under the name of Hapi — cognate, if not identical, with 
Apis. Its waters were therefore regarded as sacred, and highly 
esteemed as salubrious to the drinker and fertilizing to the soil. To 
change these waters into blood shed on the ground is to turn the 
stream of life into a pool of death. It speaks of disaster and death 
to Egypt and its gods. He that has power over the deified Nile may 
defy all the might of Pharoh. He is accredited as the minister of 
God, called to his office, qualified for his holy task, and armed with 
miraculous powers for the discomfiture of Egypt by the Lord, the 
most high God, founder of heaven and earth. 

10-17. Moses comprehends all that is implied in this last sign, 
stands aghast at the deadly encounter with the powers of Egypt, and 
urges a fourth plea. / am not eloquent, a man of words, competent to 
lay before the mind of Pharoh the awful alternative of concession or 
compulsion. His powers of persuasion had not prevailed with his 
own countrymen. His present interview with the Almighty had not 
increased them, and he could not expect to maintain the argument 
worthily in this great cause before the haughty monarch of Egypt. 

11. Who hath made mail's mouth? The Lord is still patient with 
Moses, and meets his objection with an unanswerable rejoinder. In a 
series of interrogatories it is intimated that the Lord is an infallible 
judge of what amount of natural eloquence is requisite for the occa- 
sion, and is able and sure to supply the deficiency, if any such exist. 

12. I will be with thy mouth. Here the requisite aid is expressly 
promised. 13. Notwithstanding this assuring reply, Moses prays the 
Lord to confer this honor on any other than himself. 14-17. This 
rather hasty and impatient expression of unwillingness provokes the 
Lord to anger. Yet, as this backwardness arose not from any un- 
worthy motive, but from an absence of ambition, a love of retirement, 
or a deep feeling of humility, the Lord does not turn away from his 
purpose, but with a gentle firmness acquaints him with another relief 
he has provided for his slowness of speech. Aaron, thy brother, the 
Levite. This is put first, as the prominent object of thought. The 
words in apposition with Aaron are merely intended to designate him 
fully, according to the Hebrew manner. He is of the same parents 
and tribe as Moses, and therefore suitable as an associate in this ar- 
duous undertaking. And though he was the elder brother, yet the 



EXODUS IV. 10-26. 51 

Lord assures Moses that he will be glad to see him, and of course act 
under him. Thou shalt speak to him. Moses is to perform the higher 
part still, even in speaking, namely, to dictate the words which Aaron 
is to utter. The promise of divine aid is accordingly reiterated and 
extended to both. He shall speak for thee to the people. We learn 
from this that God does not needlessly alter the natural qualities of 
his highest servants. The characteristics of mind and will in the in- 
dividual, though dedicated and adapted to a holy use, are still allowed 
to remain, and to peep out in all his sayings and doings. And thou 
shalt he to him for God. The figure here is as bold as it is expressive. 
What God is to Moses, that Moses is to Aaron in regard to the matter 
and the authority of his message. What Moses is to God, that Aaron 
is to be to Moses in regard to the delivery of it. And this rod. This 
wand of authority he recalls to the mind of Moses as another source 
of encouragement. Wherewith thou shalt do the signs. This staff was 
to be always with him as the badge of his office, if not the instrument 
of operation. 

18-26. All his fears and scruples being at length overcome, Moses 
prepares for entering on his office. Jether here is Jethro in a subse- 
quent part of this verse. We may learn from this that a mere varia- 
tion in the orthography of a proper name may indicate a variety in 
pronunciation, and not a deviation from the autograph of the author. 
Let me go now. Moses asks leave of his father-in-law to depart. Not 
only common courtesy, but the benefits he had received from Jethro 
demand this. See whether they be yet alive. The private ends he had 
in view he is at liberty to disclose to Jethro. Other reaons it was not 
necessary to state, to warrant his departure. Jethro is just, as well as 
generous, and bids him go in peace. 

19, 20. In Midian. This implies that the mount of God, west of 
the wilderness, where Moses saw the burning bush, was not in Midian. 
For all the men who sought thy life are dead. The present communi- 
cation has reference, not to the heavenly mission of Moses, but to his 
personal relations with Egypt. The cause of flight from his kindred 
was the vengeance of the king and the kinsmen of him whom he had 
slain. They were now dead, and he was at liberty to return. The 
higher reasons for his return did not at present concern the Midian- 
ites. His sons. Though the birth of only one son has been recorded, 



52 MOSES OBEYS THE CALL. 

yet we know from the subsequent narrative (Ex. xviii. 4) that a 
second son was born to him. The ass. This may mean either the 
single ass or the species of animal on which they rode. In the former 
case the two children must have been young. The ass is a much 
nobler animal in the East than with us. The rod of the God, the true 
and living God, in contrast with the gods of the heathen. The rod 
after having been transformed by the divine power into a serpent, and 
from a serpent into a staff of office, may justly be termed the rod of 
God. 

21-23. The result of the application of Moses to Pharoh, and of 
the performance of all his wonders, will only be an obstinate refusal 
to let the people go. This is here again intimated, to prepare the way 
for the dread ultimatum which is to be finally announced to Pharoh. 
Behold, with the eye of remembrance and attention. The wonders. 
Works that are supernatural, or contravene the laws of nature. They 
are called signs in reference to their use, as attesting the presence, the 
message, or the messenger of God, or as symbolizing any fact or doc- 
trine. "All" the wonders seem to refer, not merely to the three 
signs, but to the first nine plagues with which Egypt was visited. In 
thy hand in thy power by the rod in thy hand. And I will harden 
his heart. The hardening of Pharoh's heart is in this narrative ten 
times ascribed to the Lord. But it is also at least twice ascribed to 
Pharoh himself (viii. 28, ix. 34). In seven other passages it is sta- 
ted simply as a fact, without assigning any cause. It is evident of 
itself that this fact is ascribed to God and to Pharoh in different 
respects ; so that the two assertions are perfectly consistent with each 
other. It is equally plain that the act in question belongs to Pharoh, 
as the moral agent by whose intention it was performed. It belongs 
to God as the Designer, Creator, and Supreme Governor of the exist- 
ing universe, of which free agents and their voluntary actings form a 
part. His absolute and universal dominion follows from the act of 
creation, and was constantly present to the minds of the children of 
God in ancient days. Its effect upon the mind was solemn and 
impressive, and never suggested the faintest presumption of injustice 
in God, even when the acts that were sinful in his creatures were 
traced in another sense to his holy and awful will. The Scripture, 
accordingly, never hesitates for a moment to ascribe absolute holiness 



EXODUS IV. 21-26. 53 

to God, and all the guilt of a sinful act to the free agents. Further 
than this it becomes us not to define an administration which we are 
incompetent fully to conceive, or exactly to express. Then thou shalt 
say unto Pharoh. This is the ultimate message, when all feebler 
strokes had proved ineffectual. Israel is my son, adopted in sovereign 
mercy to the inheritance of privileges, which to those who appreciate 
and accept them will be perpetuated and enhanced. My first-born, 
and therefore most dear, but not exclusively dear. The first-born son 
suggests other sons born afterwards, and points in the distance to the 
calling of the Gentiles. And I said unto thee. This refers to the 
message again and again urged upon Pharoh, and hitherto obstinately 
rejected. / will slay thy son. This is the final stroke on him who 
persisted to the last in leaving all to the arbitrament of war, even 
with the Almighty. His first-born, the heir to his throne, and the 
first-born of all his people, must be slain before he can be induced to 
let Israel go. 

24-26. The sacred narrative is not wont to notice incidents on the 
way, unless they come within the sphere of the spiritual. Thus 
Jacob travels from Beersheba to Haran, a distance of nearly five 
hundred miles, and only the occurrence at Bethel is mentioned. So 
here a single incident is taken up from the ordinary routine of the 
journey to Egypt, on account of its moral import. It contains an 
element of truth that is of present moment in elucidating the ways 
of God. TJie Lord met him, and sought to kill him. The Lord had 
been charging Moses with a menace of the gravest kind to Pharoh. 
It was well that Moses himself should feel acutely the pang of death, 
that he may comprehend the terrible meaning of this threat. It 
appears that his youngest son had not been circumcised through some 
unexplained fault of Moses. The neglect of the divinely appointed 
sign of the covenant of peace with God was a serious delinquency, 
especially in him who was to be the leader and lawgiver of the holy 
people. It was meet that the austere perfection of the divine holiness 
should be made known to Moses. It was necessary at this stage of 
his experience that he should learn that God is in earnest when he' 
speaks, and will assuredly perform all that he has threatened. Hence 
the Lord sought to kill him, probably by some disease or sudden 
stroke, which threatened immediate death. And Zipporah took. It 



54 MOSES OBEYS THE CALL. 

is probable from her spontaneous promptitude that Zipporah was in 
some way the cause of the delay in circumcising the child. A sharp 
stone. This was a stone or flint knife, such as was used afterwards 
by Joshua in circumcising the children of Israel on their entrance into 
the land of Kenaan (Jos. v. 2). We read that Tubal-cain, the 
eighth in descent from Adam, was a worker in brass and iron. 
Hence it appears that implements of stone were contemporaneous 
with those of the common metals. The use of them seems to have 
prevailed in rural or remote regions, into which the arts of smelting 
and forging metals had not penetrated. The theory, therefore, of the 
successive ages of stone, brass, and iron, may apply to particular 
localities, but not to the whole habitable earth. The arts of metal- 
lurgy flourished in certain races while the ruder ware, fashioned out 
of stone, bone, and wood, was prevalent among others. And cast it 
at his feet. This indicates that Moses had signified his wish that the 
child should be circumcised. For a spouse of blood art thou to me. 
The word for refers to the significant act of casting the foreskin at 
Moses's feet, which implied that her connection with him had neces- 
sitated this bloody rite. Her womanly tenderness shrunk from the 
painful operation. And he left him. The Lord, who sought to put 
him to death, remitted the penalty now that the neglected duty was 
performed. Because of the circumcision. This explains her accost- 
ing Moses as a spouse of blood, as it was to save him from death that 
she was constrained to do herself the masculine part of circumcising 
her child. This was a salutary and seasonable lesson to Zipporah as 
well as to Moses. The occurrence probably took place on the first 
night of their journey, as they had not reached the mount of God (vs. 
27). The child was now unfit for travel, and it was easy for the 
mother to return with the two children to her father. It is most 
likely, therefore, that this was the point from which she was sent 
home by her husband (xviii. 2), in order to avoid the dangers and 
inconveniences which she was willing to brave on his account, had not 
this providential interposition ordered it otherwise. 

Moses must have occupied at least a day in returning to Midian 
with the flock of Jethro, two or three days in making preparations, 
and a day in setting out with his wife and family. The distance from 
Midian to Egypt was probably not less than two hundred miles, for 



EXODUS v. 55 

which we may allow seven days. Starting about the beginning of the 
year, according to our reckoning he would arrive in Egypt about the 
13 th of January. 

27-31. We have here a summary of the reception which Moses 
met with from the people. And the Lord said unto Aaron. The 
narrative, as usual, goes back a little to take up another line of things. 
In the ivilderness, the region between the gulfs of Suez and Akabah. 
In the mount of the God of heaven they met. And hissed him, the 
eastern mode of salutation. After receiving instructions from Moses, 
Aaron accompanied him to Egypt. They gathered the elders of the 
people (hi. 16). And Aaron spake (vs. 16). Aaron being eighty- 
three years of age, and having lived constantly among the people, 
now served to introduce Moses who had been an exile for forty years, 
and was therefore unknown to the rising generation. And did the 
signs. As Aaron did the signs before Pharoh, it is probable and 
accordant with the text that he should also be the performer before 
the people. This is in keeping with the relation between Moses and 
himself (vs. 16). It is also an example of the rule that a man is 
said to do what another does in his stead and by his authority 
(vs. 17). Bowed themselves doiun. Bent their bodies as well as their 
heads in reverence before God. So far all went well with Moses. 
His brother entered heartily into his mission, and the people acknowl- 
edged him as the messenger of God. 



IV. MOSES ENCOURAGED IN HIS OFEICE. — Ex. v., vi. 
CHAP. V. — MOSES APPEAES BEFOEE PHAEOH. 

3. K"ip3. This form here signifies to meet with, as the verb does in 
several places (Gen xlii. 4; xlix. 1, and always in the form nsnpb), 
and as the context proves (iii. 18). STn]3 is the more usual form of 
the verb with this meaning. 

6. ^yd ypa/x/xarevs a scribe, prefect, officer, employed in duties 
involving the keeping of accounts, lists, and other records. 

Y. 1. And afterward Moses and Aaron went and said unto 
Pharoh, Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, let my people 



56 MOSES APPEARS BEFORE PHAROH. 

go and hold a feast unto me in the wilderness. 2. And Pharoh 
said, Who is the Lord, that I should hearken to his voice 
to let Israel go ? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel 
go. 3. And they said, The God of the Hebrews hath met 
with us: let us go now three days' journey into the wilder- 
ness, and sacrifice unto the Lord our God, lest he fall upon 
us with pestilence or with the sword. 4. And the king of 
Mizraim said unto them, Wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron, 
loose the people from their works ? Get you to your burdens. 
5. And Pharoli said, Lo, the people of the land are now 
many, and ye make them rest from their burdens. 

6. And Pharoh commanded that day the taskmasters over 
the people and their officers, saying, 7. Ye shall not continue 
to give straw to the people to make brick, as heretofore ; let 
them go and gather straw for themselves. 8. And the tale 
of the bricks which they made heretofore ye shall lay upon 
them ; ye shall not take from it ; for they are idle : therefore 
they cry, saying, Let us go sacrifice to our God. 9. Let the 
service be heavy on the men, and let them work therein ; and 
let them not regard vain words. 10. Then went out the task- 
masters of the people and their officers, and spake unto the 
people, paying, Thus saith Pharoh, I will not give you straw. 
11. Go ye yourselves, get you straw where ye can find it; for 
not ought of your service shall be taken off. 

12. And the people were scattered throughout all the land 
of Mizraim, to gather stubble for straw. 13. And the task- 
masters hasted them, saying, Fulfil your works, the daily 
task, as when there was straw. 14. And the officers of the 
sons of Israel, whom Pharoli' s taskmasters had set over them, 
were beaten, while it was said, Why have ye not fulfilled 
your task in making brick, as heretofore, both yesterday and 
to-day ? 15. And the officers of the sons of Israel went in 



EXODUS V. 1-5. 57 

and cried unto Pharoh, saying, Why dealest thou thus with 
thy servants ? 16. No straw is given unto thy servants, and 
they say to us, Make brick: and behold thy servants are 
beaten, and it is the fault of thy people. 17. And he said, Ye 
are idle, ye are idle ; therefore ye say, Let us go sacrifice to 
the Lord. 18. And now go, work : and no straw shall be 
given you, and the tale of bricks ye shall deliver. 

19. And the officers of the sons of Israel saw that they were 
in evil case, when it was said, Ye shall not take off from the 
daily task of your bricks. 20. And they met Moses and 
Aaron standing in the way as they came out from Pharoh. 
21. And they said unto them, The Lord look upon you and 
judge ; because ye have made our savor to stink in the eyes 
of Pharoh, and in the eyes of his servants, to put a sword in 
their hand to slay us. 22. And Moses returned unto the Lord 
and said, Lord, wherefore hast thou done evil to this people ? 
Why is this, that thou hast sent me ? 23. And since I went 
in to Pharoh to speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this 
people ; neither hast thou delivered thy people at all. 

In further prosecution of their mission, Moses and Aaron now pre- 
sent themselves before Pharoh. But they are dismissed with con- 
tempt, and new hardships are imposed on the people and their officers. 
Moses returns to God disappointed and complaining. 

1-5. The request made by Moses is contemptuously refused by 
Pharoh. And afterward. After the people had accepted his au- 
thority, Moses was prepared to go before Pharoh. Hoses and Aaron, 
accompanied, no doubt, by the representatives of the people (iii. 18). 
Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel. Jehovah was the God of Adam 
(Gen. ii. 7, 16), the God of Noah (Gen. vi. 8, viii. 20, 21), and con- 
sequently of the whole race descended from him. He is here called 
the God of Israel, not as if he were one among the national gods, but 
because the other nations have corrupted the notion and worship of 
God, and because he has entered into a covenant of grace with Israel. 
8 



58 MOSES APPEAKS BEEORE PHAROH. 

Let my 'people go. The request is peremptory, because it comes directly 
from God himself. And hold a feast unto me in the wilderness. To 
hold a feast, is the immediate object of the journey. This is according 
to the divine manner of teaching. God promises a present seed ; but 
there is a future seed : a good land ; but there is a better country : an 
earthly rest, beyond which there is a heavenly rest. He speaks to men 
of the near and the obvious, and those who hear he leads on to higher 
powers of understanding and nobler scenes of enjoyment. Besides 
Pharoh was not entitled to know, and he does not condescend to ask 
what were the ulterior purposes of God. In the wilderness simply 
means out of Egypt, beyond the jurisdiction of its sovereign and the 
interference of its people. A sequestered scene was often selected by 
ancient taste for a solemn festival. 2. I know not the Lord. Jehovah, 
the God of Israel, was not unknown to the predecessors of Pharoh 
(Gen. xii. 17, 41, xliii. 23). He could scarcely be ignorant that the 
Israelites had a God. But the import of the name here employed 
may have been unknown to him, and at all events he refuses to ac- 
knowledge the authority of Jehovah. Their reply is explanatory. 
The God of the Hebrews, of which well-known nation (Gen. x. 21, xiv. 
13, xli. 15, xli. 12) the Israelites were a branch (i. 15-19), is he 
whose name is Jehovah. Hath met with us, has revealed himself to 
us in the miracles wrought in our presence, and the message com- 
municated to us by Moses. Three days' journey. See on iii. 18. 
Lest he fall on us with pestilence or with the sword. The sword is 
under the control of Providence as well as the pestilence. This is 
added to bring out clearly the necessity of their departure. Pharoh 
will gain nothing by withholding his permission, as these bond slaves, 
whom he values so much, may be destroyed by a stroke from heaven, 
from which even his own subjects might not escape. There is a clear 
and unavoidable obligation, therefore, on the Israelites to make this 
demand. It dawns upon the mind of Pharoh that this departure in- 
volves the emancipation and independence of the Israelites. But he 
will not ask the question, or entertain the thought. He treats their 
demands with a haughty impatience. Get you to your burdens. This 
is meant for the representatives of the people, as the former part of 
his reply was addressed to Moses and Aaron. 5. The people of the 
land. They are called the people of the land with reference to 



EXODUS V. 6-11. 59 

Goshen, where they were settled, in contrast with Pharoh himseF, 
who belonged to the dominant race, which may have been of foreign 
extraction, or because they were engaged in rural occupations (i. 14). 
Are now many. They are already so numerous as to endanger the 
state. And ye make them rest, when they require to be kept down in 
numbers and in spirit by hard and constant labor. It is evident that 
Pharoh spurns the thought of letting the people go. 

6-11. He determined to crush the nascent thought of freedom in 
the very bud. Tliat day. The case is urgent, and no time is to be 
lost. The taskmasters. The Egyptian drivers, who had the manage- 
ment of the servile labor. Their officers. The Shoterim were order- 
lies or managers who kept an account of all matters that came under 
their charge. They appear to have been permanent officials in the 
state of Israel, as Moses makes express provision for their continuance 
(Deut. xvi. 18), and they are mentioned on various occasions in the 
subsequent history of the people (Num. xi. 16; Deut. i. 15 ; Judg. v. 
14; 2 Chron. xxvi. 11). They occupied the highest rank among the 
people, for we find Moses selecting from among them members of 
the original Council or Sanhedrin of Israel (Num. xi. 16), and they 
are included among the representatives of the people in the public 
assembly (Deut. xxix. 10). The very name of this official indicates 
a literary people. It is judicious in a despotic sovereign, governing a 
conquered or enslaved tribe, to avail himself of certain parts of the 
political organization which they have adopted. 7. Straw. Straw cut 
into small pieces was mixed with the clay, apparently to give consist- 
ency to the brick until it was baked in the sun. The sun-dried bricks 
of Egypt are so durable that many still remain that were made many 
centuries before the Christian era. On being analyzed they are found 
to contain a portion of straw. The tale of the bricks. The same 
quantity of bricks was to be produced, though the straw had to be 
gathered, in addition to their former labors. They are idle. They 
have not enough to do, and so they have time to think about freedom. 
Let them work therein, be busy, fully employed. Vain words. Pha- 
roh affects to regard the statement that their God had interposed as a 
falsehood invented by Moses and Aaron. 11. Go ye, for no other 
will any more supply you. For not ought of your service shall be 
taken off. Therefore bestir yourselves to find the straw. 



60 MOSES ENCOURAGED — HIS GENEALOGY. 

12-18. After two days the Shoterim are beaten, because the ap- 
pointed number of bricks is not supplied ; and on complaining to Pha- 
roh, obtain no redress. 13. The daily task, the rate of a day in its 
day. 1 6. And it is the fault of thy people, who do not supply us with 
straw as formerly. 17. Ye are idle. Pharoh has no new answer for 
the officers. The intolerable burden he will not remove. 

19-23. The officers reproach Moses and Aaron for involving them 
and the people in this distress. Moses, deeply dejected, makes his 
appeal to God. 20. They came upon, encountered Moses and Aaron, 
who were standing in the way, probably awaiting the issue of their 
application to Pharoh. 21. To put a sword in their hand to slay us, 
to give a ground of offence, provoking Pharoh to such measures as 
will end in the destruction of the people. 22. Moses returned unto 
the Lord. His mission to Pharoh has entirely failed. It has only 
added to the misery of the people. He lays this before the Lord in 
very plain terms. The chapter is abruptly closed with the earnest 
expostulation of Moses. The sombre picture of wretchedness is thus 
left to make its full impression on the mind. 



VI. MOSES ENCOURAGED — HIS GENEALOGY.— Ex. vi. 

17. ^h Libni, white ; r. be white. tflottS Shimei, hearing ; r. hear. 

18. D"TO5 'Amram, binding ; r. bind. ^JW Jitshar, oil; r. shine. 
kfipW Uzziel, God my strength. 

19. "terra Machli, sickness; r. be sick, itttota Mushi, yielding; r. 
yield. 

20. Tibii Jokebed, glory to Jehovah. 

21. rrn'p Qorach, hail; r. congeal. 553 Nepheg, sprig ; r. u. sprout. 
*^2T Zikri, remembrance. 

22. b$m Mishael, who is what God is? "JSS^K Eltsaphan, God 
a hiding-place, "^no Sithri, hiding-place. 

23. snd^telK Elisheba', God is my oath. S^5W 'Amminadab, boun- 
teous to my people. )Wn Nachshon, serpentine. S'ja Nadab, bounte- 
ous. M^nst Abihu, he a father. -i^tea Elazar, God a help, lan 1 ^ 
Ithamar, where the palm. 



EXODUS VI. 61 

21. *ii&K Assir, captive. H5^» Elqanah, gotten from God. t]&XK?K 
Abiasaph, father of gathering. 

25. bfipBttl Putiel, afflicted of God. OfipB Pinechas, brazen 
mouth. 

VI. 1. And the Lord said unto Moses, Now shalt thou see 
what I will do to Pharoh : for by a strong hand shall he let 
them go, and by a strong hand shall he drive them out of his 
land. 14. § § § 2. 

2. And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am the 
Lord. 3. And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and 
unto Jacob as God Almighty ; but by my name Jehovah was 
I not known to them. 4. And I have also established my 
covenant with them, to give them the land of Kenaan ; the 
land of their sojournings wherein they sojourned. 5. And 
I have also heard the groaning of the sons of Israel, whom 
Mizraim keeps in bondage, and I remembered my covenant. 
6. Wherefore say unto the sons of Israel, I am the Lord, and 
I will bring you out from under the burdens of Mizraim, and 
deliver you out of their service ; and I will redeem you with a 
stretched-out arm and with great judgments. 7. And I will 
take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God ; and 
ye shall know that I am the Lord your God, who bringeth 
you out from under the burdens of Mizraim. 8. And I will 
bring you into the land, which I lifted up my hand to give to 
Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob ; and I will give it to you for 
a possession : I am the Lord. 9. And Moses spake so unto 
the sons of Israel,. and they hearkened not unto Moses from 
anguish of spirit and from hard service. ^[ 6. 

10. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 11. Go in, 
speak unto Pharoh king of Mizraim, that he let the sons of 
Israel go out of his land. 12. And Moses spake before the 
Lord, saying, Behold, the sons of Israel have not hearkened 



62 MOSES ENCOURAGED — HIS GENEALOGY. 

unto me; and how shall Pharoh hearken unto me, who am 
uncircumcised of lips ? ^[7. 

13. And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, and 
gave them a charge unto the sons of Israel, and unto Pharoh 
king of Mizraim, to bring the sons of Israel out of the land 
of Mizraim. § 3. 

14. These are the heads of their fathers' houses : the sons 
of Reuben, the first-born of Israel ; Henok and Pallu, Hezron 
and Karmi ; these are the families of Reuben. 15. And the 
sons of Simon; Jemuel, and Jamin, and Ohad, and Jakin, 
and Zohar, and Saul, the son of a Kenaanitess ; these are 
the families of Simon. 16. And these are the names of 
the sons of Levi, according to their generations ; Gershon, 
and Kohath, and Merari. And the years of the life of Levi 
were seven and thirty and a hundred years. 17. The sons 
of Gershon ; Libni and Shimi, according to their families. 
18. And the sons of Kohath ; Amram, and Izhar, and Heb- 
ron, and Uzziel. And the years of the life of Kohath were 
three and thirty and a hundred years. 19. And the sons of 
Merari ; Mahli and Mushi. These are the families of Levi, 
according to their generations. 20. And Amram took him 
Jokebed, his aunt, to wife, and she bare him Aaron and Moses. 
And the years of the life of Amram were seven and thirty and 
a hundred years. 21. And the sons of Izhar ; Korah, and 
Nephog, and Zikri. 22. And the sons of Uzziel ; Mishael, 
and Elzaphan, and Sithri. 23. And Aaron took Elisheba, 
daughter of Amminadab, sister of Nahshon, to wife ; and she 
bare him Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. 24. And 
the sons of Korah ; Assir and Elkanah and Abiasaph. These 
are the families of the Korhites. 25. And Eleazar, Aaron's 
son, took him a wife of the daughters of Putiel ; and she bare 
him Phinehas. These are the heads of the fathers of the 



EXODUS VI. 1-9. 63 

Levites, according to their families. 26. These are the Aaron 
and Moses, to whom the Lord had said, Bring ont the sons of 
Israel from the land of Mizraim according to their hosts. 27. 
These are they who spake to Pharoh king of Mizraim, to bring 
out the sons of Israel from Mizraim. These are the Moses 
and Aaron. 28. And it was in the day when the Lord spake 
unto Moses in the land of Mizraim. § 4. 

29. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, I am the 
Lord : speak unto Pharoh, king of Mizraim, all that I speak 
unto thee. 30. And Moses said before the Lord, Behold, I 
am uncircumcised of lips, and how shall Pharoh hearken unto 
me? f-8. 

The dejected Moses is reassured by a new assertion and exposition 
of the actual presence of God to perform his promise to his people 
(vs. 1-13). The pedigree of Moses and Aaron, and others who are to 
figure in the future scene is now given, preparatory to the commence- 
ment of Israel's deliverance (vs. 14-30). 

1. The Lord's reply is directed not to the complaint of Moses, of 
which he takes no notice, but to the contemptuous refusal with which 
Pharoh had met his rightful demand. To receive a message from his 
Maker was an unspeakable honor. Even if he suspected the message 
to be a pretence, yet reverence for him in whose name the bearers 
of it professed to come should have led to the most cautious inquiry 
before he replied. He was not to act upon a surmise in any case, 
much less in a case of such moment. Now. In the very height of 
Pharoh's arrogance and oppression, and in the depth of the people's 
anguish and despair, will the Lord appear. By a strong hand (iii. 
19). By the hand of the Almighty inflicting stroke upon stroke, 
until the spirit of Pharoh is broken. Thus will he be constrained 
not only to give them leave, but even to drive them out of his land. 
The second, "by a strong hand," for which the Sept. has "by a high 
arm" (ev jSpa^'ow vxf/rjXui), is emphatic. The Sabbath lesson of the 
synagogue terminates here, after having given relief to the anxiety of 
the hearer by a new promise of God. 



64 MOSES ENCOURAGED — HIS GENEALOGY. 

2-9. The reassurance of the preceding communication is now sus- 
tained by a recurrence to the cheering import of the name Jehovah, 
and a recapitulation of all the old promises to the patriarchs. And 
God spake. The Everlasting and Unchangeable One spake. / am 
the Lord, Jehovah. The Real, the Self-existent, the Author of all 
other existence, manifesting my being by my presence in and power 
over nature for the performance of my long-revealed purpose. This 
is a name of power and hope to cheer the darkest heart. 3. As God 
Almighty. The name Jehovah was made known to Adam by the 
stupendous works of the six days creation, which were unfolded in all 
their finished beauty and grandeur before his outward eyes and inmost 
soul (Gen. ii. 4, 16, 22, iv..l). It was also revealed to Noah in the 
preservation of his own family, and the destruction of the old world 
by a flood, which were to the Most High but the waving of his 
hand, though to man they were the majestic doings of Jehovah. But 
in the matter of the promise made to Abraham and his seed of a land 
of habitation he was known to them yet only as a promiser, not yet 
as a performer. Hence he appeared to them as El Shaddai (Gen. 
xvii. 1), God Almighty, a name expressly fitted to awaken and 
warrant faith in a promise, inasmuch as it points to the attributes of 
unchangeableness and omnipotence, which are the guarantees of its 
ultimate fulfilment. But by my name Jehovah was I not known to 
them. As the performer of promise, the giver of existence to that 
purpose which he had expressed, he was not known, personally and 
practically known, to them. By the voice of history, by the records 
of the wondrous past, they were aware that he was the Lord, and 
this name was often actually on their lips (Gen. xii. 1, 7, 8, xiv. 22, 
xv. 2, 6, xvii. 1, xviii. 27, xxi. 33, xxii. 14, xxv. 21, xxviii. 13, 16, 
21). But in their own experience, and in the matter of the special 
revelation made to them, and only now to be realized, he was not 
known to them as Jehovah the agent, but only as El Shaddai the 
potent. To know by personal observation is the primitive meaning 
of the verb 2^ " know." This is evinced by the use of the perfect 
" I have perceived," to denote what we express by " I know," like 
novi, otSa, by the contrast of knowing with hearing, in such sentences 
as ^dr x'b nx swwj N'bn (Isa. xl. 21), and by the frequent occurrence 
of the verb in this particular meaning (Gen. iii. 5, 7, 22, xviii. 21, 



EXODUS VI. 4, 5. 65 

xxii. 12 ; Ex. v. 2). That " name " denotes the nature, the import of 
the name, the being to whom belongs the attribute signalized in the 
name, cannot be unknown to the attentive reader of the Bible. (See 
on Gen. i. 5, ii. 23, iii. 20, xxvii. 36 ; Ex. iii. 13). The meaning thus 
assigned to the important verse before us is, therefore, agreeable to 
the usage of Scripture. It vindicates the veracity and consistency of 
the sacred historian. And it is singularly pertinent to the context in 
which it occurs. It affords also a remarkable illustration of the 
custom exemplified in the names Bethel (G-en. xii. 8), Dan (Gen. 
xiv. 14), Jacob and Esau (Gen. xxv. 30), according to which a 
former name is renewed and perpetuated by a new occasion occurring 
for its application. 

4, 5. These verses are a recapitulation of the past. 6-8. The 
promise now to be realized. Say unto the sons of Israel, I am the 
Lord. This is henceforth to be the word of encouragement, of au- 
thority, and of fellowship to Israel. It reminds them that God is 
now active on their behalf; that it is God who is thus active, and that 
he is present to dwell in the midst of them as a father among his 
adopted children. It guarantees the following promise. A stretched- 
out arm, a bold figure for the strenuous interposition of Jehovah. 
Take you to me for a people. This is a winning and persuasive argu- 
ment to a down-trodden people. Ye shall know that I am the Lord. 
They shall know by actual experience that he is all that is implied in 
the name Jehovah, an actual, and therefore tried, deliverer. i~ lifted 
up my hand (Gen. xiv. 22), I sware, by lifting up, in solemn appeal 
to God as a witness, the hand, the emblem of power, to perform what 
is sworn. The phrase is transferred with a singular emphasis from 
the human gesture to the divine asseveration. I am the Lord. This 
sentence is here repeated for the third time in this message, enhanced 
by all the emphasis which the distinction made between the divine 
names (vs. 3) has added to its meaning. It is the seal of God thrice 
stamped upon his promise. 9. Notwithstanding the cheering effect 
of this new Communication on Moses, the people were so heart-broken 
that they hearkened not to the comfortable words with which he 
addressed them. 

10-12. With a heavy heart and sorely wounded spirit Moses must 
have turned from the people. Yet the Lord directs him to go again 
9 



06 MOSES ENCOURAGED — HIS GENEALOGY. 

to Pharoh. Moses pleads his want of persuasive power. If his own 
people have not hearkened unto him, how will Pharoh hearken? 
Uncircumcised of lips. Circumcision is the sign of a renewal of 
nature. The uncircumcised is, therefore, by a natural figure, one who 
is still in the bondage of a corrupt heart, and incapable of holy doings. 
By a further turn of the metaphor, he is uncircumcised of lips who is 
incompetent to speak in a manner fitted to produce conviction and 
compliance. 

13. It is here stated in summary terms that the Lord now gave a 
joint command or peremptory charge to Moses and Aaron, unto, that 
is, to go unto, the sons of Israel and unto Pharoh, and to bring Israel 
out of Egypt. Aaron is joined in the commission as before, to ob- 
viate the difficulty of Moses about his failure to persuade the people. 
The last symptom of reluctance on the part of Moses has now been 
overruled, and at this point the historian is conscious that it is due to 
the leaders of this great movement, and to the ends of history, to give 
an account of the relation in which Moses and Aaron, and some of 
their kindred, who take a part in the following transactions, stand to 
the other, and especially the elder, branches of the now great family of 
Israel. This is the very moment for introducing this statement, as 
these ministers of the Lord are on the eve of entering, without any 
more faltering, on the momentous conflict between the powers of light 
and darkness, which is to end in the deliverance of the children of 
Israel. Hence, after the summary notice of the positive command 
now laid upon Moses and Aaron, the genealogical notice is inserted. 

14-28. The narrative here reverts to a point of time long passed in 
the general course of events related. Tliese are the heads of their 
fathers' houses. The twelve tribes (m^ad or maa) of Israel were 
now divided, each into families (ninair^) , and the families into fathers' 
houses (ax rna, in the plural max ma). It is evident that in a na- 
tion that had a set of officers whose business it was to keep written 
accounts of all matters coming under their charge, we may expect to 
find genealogical lists kept with care and accuracy. Moses, therefore, 
had no difficulty in finding the register of his family. In quoting 
from the public records, it was both respectful to the two elder tribes 
and essential to a clear statement of the relative position of Moses and 
Aharon in the nation to give at least the families contained in these 



EXODUS VI. 14-30. 67 

tribes. Then follow what are, strictly speaking, their, that is, Moses 
and Aaron's fathers' houses. The ages of Levi, Kohath, and Amram, 
the lineal ancestors of the leaders of the people, are given. The 
second son of Levi is the father of Amram. And Amram took him 
Jokebed, his aunt, to wife (see on ii. 1). We are here brought to the 
parents of Moses and Aaron. 21. The sons of Izhar are introduced on 
account of Korah, who afterwards comes to a bad pre-eminence (Num. 
xvi.). 22. The sons of Uzziel are mentioned because they also recur 
in the narrative (Lev. x. 4). 23. Elisheba, sister of Nahshon, was 
the fifth (inclusive) in descent from Judah ; while Aaron was only the 
fourth from Levi by his father's side, and the third by his mother's. 
This prepares us to expect great disparity in the number of generations 
in different lines. Aaron's sons will meet us in the narrative hereafter. 
24. The sons of Korah were the survivors of their father, and became 
heads of families (Num. xxvi. 11). 25. Of Putiel we know nothing 
further. Phinehas is the sixth (inclusive) in descent from Levi, and 
the seventh from Judah. 26—28. These are the Aaron and Moses. 
The design of the preceding paragraph was to explain who Aaron and 
Moses were. They stand here in the order of seniority. At the end 
of the next verse they are placed in the order of rank. To whom the 
Lord had said. This refers to the commission he had given to them 
before their first interview with Pharoh. These are they who spake to 
Pharoh in the first interview, which is recorded in the fifth chapter. 
And it was in the day. This was the state of things at the time. 
This verse seems designed to date the time when the conjunction of 
circumstances described in the preceding passage regarding the family 
of Moses had taken place. In accordance with this, the closed section 
of the Masoretic text terminates with this verse. The connection of 
such a sentence with the preceding context is unusual ; but it occurs 
in other instances (Deut. ii. 16; Zech. vi. 15). The phrase W it 
came to pass, simply indicates a point of time at which a preceding 
period terminates, and the following one begins. The prominent ref- 
erence is usually to the latter ; but it may be to the former (Gen. i. 
7, 9, 11, 15, 24, 30). Sometimes the reference may be equal to both 
(Gen. iv. 8). 

29, 30. These verses contain a recapitulation of verses 10-12, and 
therefore bring us up, in point of time, to the beginning of verse 13, 



68 MOSES ENCOURAGED — HIS GENEALOGY. 

which is itself a summary of what is given in detail in the beginning 
of the next chapter. The first seven verses of the seventh chapter 
might accordingly be regarded as the continuation of the sixth. But 
in the existing arrangement they form an appropriate introduction to 
the record of those ten strokes of judgments by which the resistance 
of Egypt was broken, and the way at length opened for the departure 
of Israel. 

We have now perused the record of Israel's servitude in Egypt. It 
runs parallel with the early part of the life of the deliverer, or more 
precisely of Aaron, his senior by three years. It commences probably 
with a new dynasty in Egypt, at a time when the increase of the 
people was so marked as to become alarming to a sovereign not very 
firmly seated on the throne, and exposed to the hostility of neigh- 
boring powers. His policy, though it does not keep down the popu- 
lation, makes him aware of their value as servile laborers. He there- 
fore persists in his arbitrary course until the cry of the oj^pressed 
people reaches heaven. The deliverer now appears ; but his approach 
to the monarch is only the signal for a new outburst of violence and 
oppression. This casts the last shade of gloom and despondency over 
the scene. 



SECTION II. — THE TEN PLAGUES. 

V. THE FIRST THREE PLAGUES. — Ex. vii. 8-viii. 9. 
CHAP. VII. — WATER CHANGED LNTO BLOOD. 

9. 'pStn long creature, sea-monster, serpent, dragon. It sometimes 
denotes the crocodile, Isa. xxvii. 1 ; li. 9. The Sept. give Sp&Kwv, 
which we have retained to distinguish it from ttina serpent, which is a 
species of the more general term "pan. The crocodile might be inclu- 
ded under either. But the asp or basilisk is more probable, though 
the term employed is perhaps designedly general. 

11. C]tB3T3 sorcerer, magician, enchanter, one who practises hidden 
or black arts ; r. hide. These arts are called n^'jtib = D^ab enchant- 
ments, from anb = osib to hide. Whether these arts were due to the 
light of experience or the powers of darkness, we have not the means 
of determining. 

VII. 1. And the Lord said unto Moses, See, I have made 
thee a god unto Pharoh ; and Aaron thy brother shall be thy 
prophet. 2. Thou shalt speak all that I command thee ; and 
Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharoh, that he send the 
sons of Israel out of his land. 3. And I will harden Pha- 
roh' s heart ; and multiply my signs and my wonders in the 
land of Mizraim. 4. And Pharoh will not hearken unto you, 
and I will lay my hand upon Mizraim : and I will bring forth 
my hosts, my people, the sons of Israel, out of the land of Miz- 
raim by great judgments. 5. And Mizraim shall know that I 
am the Lord, when I stretch forth my hand upon Mizraim, 
and bring out the sons of Israel from among them. 6. And 
thus did Moses and Aaron ; as the Lord commanded them, so 



70 THE FIRST PLAGUE. 

did they. 7. And Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron 
three and eighty years old, when they spake unto Pharoh. 

8. And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying : 
9. When Pharoh shall speak unto you, saying, show for you 
a miracle ; then thou shalt say unto Aaron, Take thy rod and 
cast it before Pharoh ; let it become a- dragon. 10. And Moses 
and Aaron went in unto Pharoh, and did so as the Lord had 
commanded ; and Aaron cast down his rod before Pharoh and 
before his servants, and it became a dragon. 11. And Pharoh 
also called the sages and the sorcerers ; and the scribes of 
Mizraim, they also did so with their enchantments. 12. And 
they cast down every man his rod, and they became dragons : 
and Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods. 13. And Pharoh's 
heart was hardened, and he hearkened not unto them, as the 
Lord had spoken. § 5. 

14. And the Lord said unto Moses, Pharoh's heart is hard ; 
he refuseth to let the people go. 15. Go unto Pharoh in the 
morning ; lo, he goeth out unto the water, and thou shalt stand 
to meet him at the river's brink: and the rod which was 
turned to a serpent shalt thou take in thy hand. 16. And 
thou shalt say unto him, The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, 
hath sent me unto thee to say, Let my people go and serve me 
in the wilderness ; and behold thou hast not hearkened hither- 
to. 17. Thus saith the Lord, In this thou shalt know that I 
am the Lord ; behold I smite with the rod that is in my hand 
upon the water which is in the river, and it shall be turned 
into blood. 18. And the fish that is in the river shall die, 
and the river shall stink: and Mizraim shall loathe to drink 
the water of the river. § 6. 

19. And the Lord said unto Moses, say unto Aaron, Take 
thy rod, and stretch out thy hand upon the waters of Mizraim, 
upon their rivers, upon their streams, and upon their ponds, 



EXODUS VII. 71 

and upon every pool of their waters, and they shall become 
blood : and there shall be blood in all the land of Mizraim, 
both in wood and in stone. 20. And Moses and Aaron did so, 
as the Lord commanded ; and he lifted up the rod and smote 
the water that was in the river, in the eyes of Pharoh, and in 
the eyes of his servants ; and all the water that was in the 
river was turned into blood. 21. And the fish that was in the 
river died ; and the river stank, and Mizraim could not drink 
water from the river : and the blood was in all the land of 
Mizraim. 22. And the scribes of Mizraim did so with their 
enchantments : and Pharoh's heart was hardened, neither did 
he hearken unto them, as the Lord had spoken. 23. And 
Pharoh turned and went into his house, neither did he set his 
heart even to this. 24. And all Mizraim digged round about 
the river for water to drink ; for they could not drink of the 
water of the river. 25. And seven days were fulfilled, after 
the Lord had smitten the river. ^[ 10. 

The problem to be solved in this section is the deliverance of a 
family, now grown into a nation, who have been unjustly reduced to a 
state of servitude, from a haughty despot who finds his advantage in 
retaining them by force in his service. Every man, we have no 
doubt, thinks he can easily solve it; and the solution proposed by 
each will depend very much on the character of the individual. All 
men will also, we conceive, acknowledge that the omniscient and 
omnipotent God could accomplish the end in question in a variety of 
ways, conceivable or inconceivable by man. It is certain, however, 
that the all-wise God can and will work tins problem in one way. 
This will be the best way. He only knows what is the best way for 
all parties. He has respect in ail his doings to the best interests 
of his rational creatures. This consists in the perfection and culture 
of their intellectual and moral nature, as the only solid foundation of 
complete and perpetual happiness. His method of procedure, there- 
fore, will be exactly fitted not only to the nature of man, the chief 



72 THE FIRST PLAGUE. 

rational party concerned, in general, but to the stage of development 
to which at the time he has attained. It is true and important in one 
sense that God giveth not account of any of his matters; but it is 
equally true and important that he takes account of all matters what- 
soever in all his proceedings. Hence he has regard to Israel, to 
Egypt, to Kenaan, and to the whole human race in the manner in 
which he meets this great emergency. He has in view the present 
state of these parties, and adapts his measures to their instruction in 
spiritual things according to their several attainments in mental and 
moral truth. The result of the divine wisdom is the best plan of 
delivering Israel from Egypt, which is accordingly carried into effect, 
and is here delineated for our learning. Let us enter upon the study 
of it, hoping to be illuminated ourselves with many rays of that light 
which then broke upon the minds of Israel and his contemporaries. 

We have already read the instructive account of the appointment 
of Moses to be the prime minister of Heaven in this great movement, 
and the deferential respect with which his credentials have been 
received by the people. Accompanied by the elders of Israel, he 
has approached Pharoh, and presented the authoritative message of 
the God of heaven and earth, requiring him to let Israel go and keep 
a feast to the Lord. In these facts we have striking instances of 
God's manner of proceeding. He does not appoint a servant with- 
out removing all his difficulties, and affording him the fullest instruc- 
tions. He does not take a step in the emancipation of the people 
without obtaining their acceptance of the leader he has chosen and 
their concurrence in the measures he has devised. And, notwithstand- 
ing the absence of all equity, as well as gratitude, in the manner in 
which the Pharohs had degraded into serfs the free kinsmen of 
Joseph, he opens the negociations with the reigning sovereign by a 
simple and moderately worded, yet firm and fraok, demand of the 
release of his people for the immediate purpose of a religious festival. 
It is obvious that so mild a request, so limited in its terms, in circum- 
stances of so grave injustice, coming from the most high God, could 
not have been rejected by a right-minded man. Inquiries might 
have been made, difficulties started, and claims advanced, if there had 
been any ; and these would have been all reasonably and satisfactorily 
met. And thus a negociation opened with forbearance and carried on 



EXODUS VII. 1-7. 73 

with equity would have terminated in a peaceful and amicable settle- 
ment. Such is the beginning of God's method for the deliverance of 
his people from Egypt. 

But upon the proud and arrogant mind of Pharoh this temperate 
dealing has an opposite effect. He breaks out into instant defiance of 
God, contempt of his ministers, and revenge upon his people. His 
heart, practised in the arts of tyranny, gains a new degree of 
obstinacy from its violent recoil against this modest and seemingly 
feeble whisper of the bond-slave's God. With unaffected simplicity 
the sacred historian records the disastrous consequences of Pharoh's 
indignation on the people and their officers, and the sad shock it gave 
to their infant faith. This was, no doubt, very painful to endure and 
pitiful to contemplate. But it had its pregnant and salutary lessons, 
and he who has looked into the after history of this people will be 
persuaded that this and many subsequent correctives were absolutely 
necessary to bring them to that depth of piety, strength of principle, 
and decision of character which conferred a moral dignity on the nation, 
the traces of which are still to be found in the remnant of Israel. 

Even Moses himself is disappointed by the failure of his first 
attempt, and distressed by the anguish and despondency of the people. 
Accordingly the Lord, in the beginning of this chapter, opens up to 
him a new and cheering view of his relation to Pharoh, and sends 
him again to him with the miraculous authentication of his mission. 
This second effort of the divine forbearance is also disregarded by 
the infatuated king. Only on the third appearance of Moses before 
Pharoh is he authorized to announce and inflict the first plague or 
stroke of judgment upon the recusant monarch. 

1-7. This passage is the expansion of vs. 13 of the previous chapter. 
A new and encouraging view of his relation to Pharoh is here pre- 
sented to Moses, inducing him to enter with a willing and intelligent 
interest into the divine mission with which he has been intrusted. A 
god unto Pharoh. What God was to Moses in point of instruction, 
that Moses was to be to Aaron (iv. 16) ; and what God was to him in 
respect of power, that he was now to be to Pharoh. He was to be 
the revealer of the divine will to Aaron ; the executor of the divine 
will on Pharoh. God puts his servant in a satisfactory position 
toward the adversary he has to encounter ; and henceforth he proceeds 
10 



74 THE FIRST PLAGUE. 

without faltering to carry out the divine intentions. And Aaron 
shall be thy prophet. A prophet is God's spokesman, uttering a mes- 
sage or a prayer by his authority (Gen. xx. 7). Such is Aaron to be 
to Moses, as explained in the following verse. The plenipotentiary 
of heaven is now amply furnished for his great undertaking. 3. And 
I will harden Pharoh 1 s heart. We have seen the process already 
begun. The very patience and moderation winch were calculated to 
subdue a will amenable to reason, only aroused the resistance and 
vengeance of Pharoh. Every succeeding step in the procedure of 
God is dictated by a like consideration and forbearance. Though it 
be true, therefore, that God did harden Pharoh's heart, yet it was by 
measures that would have disarmed the opposition and commanded 
the acquiescence of an upright mind. 4. 1 will lay my hand upon Miz- 
raim, because Pharoh is the representative of the Egyptians, because 
they concur in his sentiments, and because, even when they do not 
concur, they do not actively dissent from his intentions. Thus nations 
share the guilt, and therefore the punishment, of their erring sove- 
reigns. Moreover, God will touch the consciences of the nation in 
this high controversy, and awaken within them that fear of God which 
ought to regulate and set bounds to the fear of their earthly king (vs. 
5). I iv ill briny forth my hosts. The hosts of the Lord they were in 
a literal sense, and a stern work they had to perform in the beginning 
of their career. Yet they gradually rose to a higher form of warfare, 
in which they were destined, yet with many auxiliaries, to endure hard- 
ness as good soldiers of the Messiah. The term hosts, however, is 
significant even here. It points to the fact that the sons of Israel are 
to march out of Egypt in battle array, apart from the women, children, 
cattle, and baggage (xiii. 18). 5. And Mizraim shall know. They 
shall find by experience, whether they take the lesson to heart or not. 
TJiat I am the Lord. That great master-truth of all theology, that 
the God of the Hebrews is the one true and living God, the founder 
and mover of heaven and earth. The nations have inherited the 
vague notion of God, indeed, from their common father ; but they have 
essentially corrupted it, so that their gods are no longer the true God 
at all, but only a baseless phantom of their imagination. They have 
lost the historical connection with the God of their remote ancestry. 
In the one line of Israel, through the providence of God, has the his- 



exodus vn. s-13. 75 

torical revelation of God been preserved pure and entire. This 
would have been Egypt's day of grace, if the nation had only fully 
accepted this one lesson, " I am the Lord " ; but it became a day of 
judgment on account of its rejection, and this day continued, until sal- 
vation began to go forth from Jerusalem. 6. And thus did Moses and 
Aaron. There is henceforward a prompt and constant obedience to 
the divine command, with the exception of certain grave inadvertencies 
into which they are betrayed by the remaining infirmities of the old 
man. 7. And Jloses was eighty years old. YFe are now arrived at 
the point we had reached in the summary of vi. 13. It is in place to 
state the ages of the two brothers. As no mention is made of any 
difficulty in saving Aaron when an infant, it is not improbable that 
the edict about the execution of the male infants, by casting them 
into the Nile, was published after his birth, and in fact very shortly 
before the birth of Moses. Eighty years may seem a ripe age for en- 
tering upon an arduous enterprise ; but all the ancestors of Moses lived 
beyond the age of one hundred and thirty years, so that eighty was 
not more in proportion than forty would be now. This is the proper 
close of the paragraph beginning with the genealogy (vi. 14), and, 
therefore, after having expanded vi. 13 in the previous passage, the 
writer is prepared to go on with the main line of the narrative. 

8-13. Moses now understands the position of advantage in which 
the Lord has put him, and is emboldened to appear the second time 
before Pharoh. Having armed his servant with miraculous powers 
so that he is a god to Pharoh, the Lord makes a second overture to 
the haughty monarch. Let it become a dragon. The more general 
word "pan is here employed instead of serpent (iv. 3), simply because 
this is not precisely the same sign that was shown to Moses in the 
mount of God. The latter was to be exhibited before the people for 
their conviction (iv. 1-5). The wonders to be done before Pharoh 
(iv. 21-23) were not the same, though two of them were similar, 
and seem to have included all the plagues which were afterwards 
wrought by the hand of Moses. The dragon is here, therefore, a 
different species of the serpent kind from that which appeared before 
the Israelites. The kind of animal on each occasion is that which 
would be most significant to the party concerned. The serpent would 
recall to Israel the serpent in Eden. The tannin, here rendered 



76 THE FIRST PLAGUE. 

dragon, after the Septuagint, may have been the asp or basilisk, 
which was the emblem of royalty, or some other species of serpent 
equally significant to Pharoh and to Egypt. The sages and the 
sorcerers ; and the scribes. The sages and scribes were summoned to 
Pharoh in the time of Joseph (Gen. xli. 8). It is probable that the 
scribes, or hieroglyphs, included all the classes of sages, and that the 
sages included the sorcerers. They also did so with their enchant- 
ments. It is certain that the charming of serpents has been long 
practised in Egypt and adjacent countries. The serpent called hage 
by the Arabs, apparently the asp, can be made to appear as dead or 
rigid as a stick, and of course restored to its natural state again. 
Now the Scripture does not care to determine whether a given work 
be done by natural or preternatural means. It grants merely that 
the thing in question has been done, when it is professed and appears 
to have been done. It does not concern the sacred writer or his 
readers how the impression was made on the senses, but only that in 
fact it was made. And Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods. This 
was a plain and palpable proof that the presence and power of God 
were with Moses. It may occur to the mind that it would have been 
as effectual a mode of convincing Pharoh to have restrained his 
magicians from playing their part before him. And undoubtedly the 
Almighty could have done so. But it is not his way to interfere by 
physical force with the free-agency of his responsible creatures (see 
Gen. iii. 1-7). If it had, he would have restrained Satan from 
entertaining the intention of resisting his Maker, or at least from 
afterwards intruding into the garden of Eden ; and he would have 
withheld the woman's hand and desire from the fruit of the forbidden 
tree, and so actual sin might never have entered into heaven or earth. 
But where would have been free-agency, or by what means would 
the existence of creature morality have been known ? Let us not 
imagine, therefore, that even in this small matter we can amend God's 
mode of procedure. And PharoKs heart was hardened. It is plain 
that Pharoh had deluded himself by means of his magicians into the 
fancy that Moses is only a more skilful magician than his own. He 
attaches no proper weight to the disappearance of their rods, which 
was the testing miracle. As the Lord had spoken. It is the preroga- 
tive of the Omniscient to predict the conduct of men. Though we 



EXODUS VII. 14-24. 77 

cannot explain this mystery, yet from the known character of a man 
we can sometimes make a shrewd guess at the way in which he will 
act in given circumstances. 

The interview with the people, the first appearance before Pharoh, 
the two days after which the officers were beaten, the second inter- 
view with the people, and the second with Pharoh, cannot have 
occupied less than seven days, and therefore bring us to the 20th of 
January, or thereabout. 

14—24 This second appeal having failed to make any impression 
on the heart of Pharoh, the Lord, as a third and last resort, directs 
Moses to the infliction of the first of a series of judicial strokes, 
increasing in intensity of effect, by which the refractory monarch is 
at length compelled to let the people go. The Jewish Rabbis have 
not been slow to observe the regular order in which these successive 
strokes are arranged, and the gradual advance which they make from 
the external to the internal, and from the mediate to the immediate 
hand of God. They are in number ten ; which is one of the numbers 
denoting perfection. They are divided first into nine and one ; the 
last one standing clearly apart from all the others, in the awful shriek 
of woe which it draws forth from every Egyptian home. The nine 
are arranged in threes. In the first of each three the warning is given 
to Pharoh in the morning (vii. 15, viii. 20, ix. 13). In the first and 
second of each three, the plague is announced beforehand (viii. 1 ; 
ix. 1, x. 1), in the third not (viii. 16, ix. 8, x. 21). At the third 
the magicians of Pharoh acknowledge the finger of God (viii. 19), 
at the sixth they cannot stand before Moses (ix. 11), and at the ninth 
Pharoh refuses to see the face of Moses any more (x. 28). In the 
first three Aaron uses the rod ; in the second three it is not mentioned ; 
in the third three Moses uses it, though in the last of them only 
his hand is mentioned. All these marks of order lie on the face of 
the narrative, and point to a deeper order of nature and reason out 
of which they spring. 

The gradation in the severity of these strokes is no less obvious. 
In the first three no distinction is made among the inhabitants of the 
land ; in the remaining seven a distinction is made between the Israel- 
ites, who are shielded from, and the Egyptians, who are exposed to, 
the stroke. In these seven which are peculiar to the Egyptians, the 



78 THE FIRST PLAGUE. 

order is the reverse of that in the work of creation. Three refer to 
the animal creation, and three to the vegetable world, the support of 
animal life. The last of these six is darkness, the opposite of light, the 
product of the first day ; and the seventh is death. The first three 
affect the health and comfort of man ; the next three take away the staff 
of life ; then comes death itself, and the work of destruction is complete. 

To understand the deep import of the conflict before us, let us bear 
in mind that now for the first time since the dispersion of mankind the 
opposition between the children of God and the children of disobe- 
dience is coming out into broad daylight. Egypt, that was the kind 
fosterer of the chosen family, has now become the persecutor of 
Israel, and the avowed antagonist of God. The present struggle is 
therefore no raid for the gathering of booty, nor encounter between 
two rival nations, nor expedition for the selfish ends of au earthly 
ambition. It is the controversy between light and darkness, in which 
the God of heaven and earth manifests his presence and power on 
behalf of his people and against the defiant nation. This nation is for 
the time being the representative of all heathendom, which is the 
kingdom of the prince of darkness ; and the battle now fought is the 
model and type of all future warfare between the seed of the woman 
and the seed of the serpent. Hence it rises to a transcendent impor- 
tance in the ways of God with man, and fitly holds a place even in 
the preface to the ten commandments (xx. 2). 

14-18. The announcement of the first plague! Pharoh's heart is 
hard, heavy ("OS), stupid and insensible to right reason and the real 
state of things. In the preceding verse it was described as hard, firm 
(ptn^j, obstinate, and inflexible in its own selfish purpose. In the 
third verse of this chapter we find another word (M£g), rendered 
hard, applied to the heart, having the sense of obdurate, steeled 
against every tender or unselfish feeling. We have only the one 
equivalent for all these terms. Go unto Pharoli in the morning. 
It appears that Pharoh was wont to be out on the banks of the Nile 
in the morning, either for an airing, or to bathe in its waters. lie 
could scarcely be supposed to visit the magnificent river without 
presenting to it some form of adoration. To the Nile Egypt owed its 
soil and its fertility. The inhabitants esteemed its waters the most 
delicious beverage, regarded itself as the source of life and prosperity 



EXODUS VII. 19-24. 79 

to the nation, and soon began to venerate it as the deity of their land, 
identical with Osiris and Apis. Royalty would feel itself specially 
attracted by such a divinity, and bound to take a leading part in its 
worship. At this river's brink, therefore, was the fit place to meet 
Pharoh. The rod which was turned into a serpent, was the wand 
of power by which Moses was distinguished as the minister of 
heaven. The Lord. This is the name of present and active power, 
by which the God of the Hebrews is now to be practically signalized. 
Pharoh is reminded of the divine message, and of its rejection by 
him. 11. In this thou shalt know that lam the Lord. Pharoh is to 
know, at least experimentally, if not submissively and penitently, 
that grand sentence, " I am the Lord." Behold I smite. This was 
to take place immediately, in the very presence of Pharoh. The 
water which is in the river, that very river which was the object of all 
Egypt's praise and veneration ! And it shall be turned into blood, 
blood poured out, and therefore dead, and spreading death instead of 
diffusing life. Hence the fish shall die, and the river become putrid 
and loathsome to the smell and the taste. This was sufficient to show, 
if it was necessary, that the Nile was not a god, but a mere inanimate 
creature. 

19-24. The fulfilment now follows. Say unto Aaron. Pharoh is 
to learn the dignity of Moses, who commands Aaron his prophet to 
execute this miracle, and thus Moses is a god to Pharoh. Take thy 
rod. This is the rod of Moses (vs. 15) which Aaron bears. Upon 
their rivers. These appear to be the arms or mouths into which the 
Nile separates itself in the Delta, of which there were anciently 
seven. They are called " their rivers," that is, those of Egypt, which 
is here a collective noun denoting the nation. Their streams (Stwpvyas 
Sept.) are the canals by which the land was irrigated, Their ponds 
are the marshy lakes, such as Mceris and Mareotis. And every pool, 
every small collection or reservoir for private or special use. In all 
the land of Mizraim, not only in the river and all its connected 
waters, but in the land, that is, as explained, in all cisterns, whether of 
wood or stone, for the filtration or preservation of the water. 20. In 
the eyes of Pharoh, and of his servants. A retinue of his courtiers was 
present on the occasion, including priests and magicians. And all the 
water was turned into blood. The Nile begins to rise about the end 



80 THE FIRST PLAGUE. 

of June, and attains its highest point at the end of September 
About the commencement of the rise it assumes a greenish hue, is 
disagreeable to the taste, unwholesome, and often totally unfit for 
drinking. It soon, however, becomes red and turbid, and continues in 
this state for three or more weeks. In this condition it is again 
healthy and fit for use. The miracle now performed was totally 
different from this annual change. For (1) it occured after the winter, 
not the summer, solstice ; (2) the water was turned into blood, and not 
merely reddened by an admixture of red clay or animalcula ; (3) the 
fish died, a result which did not follow from the periodical change of 
color ; (4) the river stank, and became offensive, which it ceased to be 
when the ordinary redness made its appearance ; (5) the stroke was 
arrested at the end of seven days, whereas the natural redness con- 
tinued for at least three weeks ; and (6) the change was brought on 
instantly at the word of command before the eyes of Pharoh. The 
calamity was appalling. The sweet waters of the Nile were the 
common beverage of Egypt. It abounded in all kinds of fish, which 
formed a principal article of diet for the inhabitants. It was revered 
as a god by Egypt. But now it was a putrid flood, from which they 
turned away with loathing. And the scribes of Mizraim did so with 
their enchantments. It has been asked where they got the water. 
We read (in verse 24) that " all Mizraim digged round about the 
river for water to drink." We have no doubt the hieroglyphs of 
Pharoh had wit enough to make the same experiment. The natives 
of a country in which the only river becomes periodically unfit for 
drinking would not be unfamiliar with the expedient of digging for 
water when the ordinary supply failed. These miracle-mongers con- 
fine themselves to the safe experiment of imitating on a small scale 
the work of God's servants. It would have been a clear demonstra- 
tion of their superiority if they had countermanded the order of 
Moses, and converted the morbid mass into a limpid stream. This 
was what Egypt needed. Their trick was but a wretched mockery 
of help. 23. Neither did he set his heart even to this. When the 
will is strongly bent upon a foregone conclusion, a very small show 
of proof will beget conviction. The hieroglyphs managed to exhibit 
the appearance at least of changing a little water into blood. The 
headstrong monarch is confirmed in his resolve, and returns unmoved 



EXODUS vin. 81 

by Egypt's misery to his home. 25. And seven days were fulfilled. 
The " smiting " of the river was not a momentary act, but a process 
that lasted for seven days, and then was remitted. This carries us on 
to about the 27 th of January. We are not informed what length of 
time was occupied with the other plagues ; but it will serve the pur- 
pose of order and clearness to suppose that seven days elapsed during 
the course of each of the seven following. 

This miracle was not merely a judicial, but a significant act It 
marks the retribution of heaven. Pharoh orders the male infants of 
the Hebrews to be cast into the river, that they might perish there, and 
become food for its fish. That very river is changed into a stream of 
death. It displays also the folly of creature-worship. Pharoh adores 
the life-sustaining power of nature, as embodied in the majestic river 
before him. The God of nature transforms the running water into a 
river of death before his eyes. It demonstrates, in the way that was 
most striking to the Hebrew and the Egyptian, that the God of Israel 
was the true and only God of heaven and earth, and that all other 
objects of worship were but the creatures of God or the works of men's 
hands. 

The next four verses of the Hebrew text, appended in Van der 
Hooght's edition to this chapter, are here, for the sake of convenience, 
transferred to the beginning of the next chapter, in accordance with a 
considerable number of MSS. and some early versions, including the 
Vulgate. This arrangement of the text is adopted in "Walton's Poly- 
glott and the English Version. 



VI. THE SECOND THREE PLAGUES. — Ex. viii. 20-ix. 12. 
CHAP. VIII. — THE PLAGUES OF (2) FROGS, (3) LICE, AND (4) FLIES. 

9. "iXQ^H . This form elsewhere denotes to glory or vaunt oneself. 
Here, however, the Sept. gives ra£ai, the Vulg. constttue, and the 
Targum of Onkelos, " set thou a time. " The former meaning must, 
in the present passage, be taken in a pregnant sense, and include the 
latter. The radical signification of the verb, namely, to be bright, 
clear, however, will naturally yield the latter as a secondary meaning. 
11 



82 THE PLAGUE OF FROGS. 

16. D33 n^33 lice. In the Talmud H33 a louse. The Jewish 

T • • • T • 

interpreters (including Onkelos and Josephus), the Syriac, the 
Arabic, and the Talmud, give this meaning, which is supported by 
Bochart. The Sept. gives a/cvt^e?, which Gesenius and others take 
to mean gnats. But Kuivuxp or e/x7rt's is the gnat. The ctkvlij/ is said to 
be an ant that preys on figs, or an insect that lives under the bark of 
trees. Either of these bears more analogy to the louse than to the 
gnat or mosquito. The louse is also found "on men and beasts," while 
the gnat flies in the air. The former is also more clearly distin- 
guished from the 315 than the latter. 

21. 3^5 fly. The Sept. gives Kvvofxvta, dog-fly ; Aquila 7ra/x/xt>ia, 
all kinds of flies. It seems probable that as the nss is a parasitical 
animal without wings, so the 3'i$ is a fly that has a long proboscis, 
piercing the skin, sucking the blood, and leaving a painful and 
highly inflamed wound. It may derive its name from 3*52 the even- 
ing, when it becomes most troublesome, or from 3^3> to mix, because 
the whole class of flies is included. Kalisch is strongly in favor of 
the beetle {Blatta Orientalis) ; but this does not attack men. In the 
absence of any very distinct aid from usage, the word being found 
only in this passage and in Ps. lxxviii. 45, cv. 31, it seems better to 
adhere to the generic term, fly, which accords best with all the cir- 
cumstances noted. It fastens on man, enters houses, and infests fields. 

VIII. 1. And the Lord said unto Moses, Go in to Pharoh, 
and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Let my people go and 
serve me. 2. And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I 
will smite all thy border with frogs. 3. And the river shall 
swarm with frogs, and they shall come up, and go in to thy 
house, and to thy sleeping-room, and upon thy bed, and into 
the house of thy servants, and on thy people, and into thine 
ovens, and into thy kneading-troughs. 4. And on thee and on 
thy people and on all thy servants shall the frogs come up. 
5. And the Lord said unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch 
forth thy hand, with thy rod, over the rivers and over the 
streams and over the ponds, and bring up the frogs upon the 



exodus vm. 83 

land of Mizraim. 6. And Aaron stretched forth his hand over 
the waters of Mizraim, and the frogs came up and covered the 
land of Mizraim. 7. And the scribes did so with their 
enchantments, and brought up frogs upon the land of Miz- 
raim. 

8. And Pharoh called for Moses and Aaron, entreat the Lord 
and let him take away the frogs from me and from my peo- 
ple ; and I will let the people go and sacrifice unto the Lord. 
9. And Moses said unto Pharoh, Prescribe unto me when I 
shall entreat for thee and for thy servants and for thy people, 
to cut off the frogs from thee and thy houses; only in the 
river shall they remain. 10. And he said, To-morrow. And 
he said, Be it according to thy word ; that thou mayest know 
that there is none like unto the Lord our God. 11. And the 
frogs shall depart from thee, and from thy houses, and from 
thy servants, and from thy people; only in the river shall 
they remain. 12. And Moses and Aaron went out from Pha- 
roh ; and Moses cried unto the Lord on account of the frogs 
which he had brought on Pharoh. 13. And the Lord did 
according to the word of Moses : and the frogs died out of the 
houses, out of the courts, and out of the fields. 14. And they 
gathered them together in heaps ; and the land stank. 15. 
And Pharoh saw that there was respite ; and he hardened 
his heart and hearkened not unto them, as the Lord had 
spoken. § 6. 

16. And the Lord said unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch 
forth thy rod, and smite the dust of the land, and it shall 
become lice in all the land of Mizraim. 17. And they did so: 
and Aaron stretched out his hand, with his rod, and smote the 
dust of the land, and it became lice on man and on beast : all 
the dust of the land became lice in all the land of Mizraim. 
18. And the scribes did so with their enchantments to bring 



84 THE PLAGUE OF FROGS. 

forth the lice, and could not : and the lice were on man and 
on beast. 19. And the scribes said unto Pkaroh, This is the 
finger of God. And Pharoh's heart was hardened, and he 
hearkened not unto them, as the Lord had spoken. § 7. 

20. And the Lord said unto Moses, Rise up early in the 
morning, and stand before Pharoh ; lo, he cometh forth to the 
water : and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Let my people 
go and serve me. 21. For if thou wilt not let my people go, 
behold I send upon thee, and upon thy servants, and upon thy 
people, and into thy houses, the fly ; and the houses of Miz- 
raim shall be full of the fly, and even the ground whereon 
they are. 22. And I will sever in that day the land of Go- 
shen, on which my people stand, that the fly may not be 
there ; that thou mayest know that I am the Lord in the 
midst of the land. 23. And I will put a division between my 
people and thy people : to-morrow shall this sign be. 24. And 
the Lord did so, and there came a grievous fly into Pharoh's 
house and the house of his servants ; and in all the land of 
Mizraim the land was destroyed by reason of the fly. 

25. And Pharoh called Moses and Aaron, and said, Go ye, 
sacrifice to your God in the land. 26. And Moses said, It is 
not meet so to do ; for we shall sacrifice the abomination of 
Mizraim to the Lord our God : lo, we shall sacrifice the abomi- 
nation of Mizraim before their eyes, and will they not stone 
us ? 27. We will go three days' journey into the wilderness, 
and sacrifice to the Lord our God, as he shall say unto us. 
28. And Pharoh said, I will let you go and sacrifice to the 
Lord your God in the wilderness ; only ye shall not go very 
far away : entreat for me. 29. And Moses said, Behold, I go 
out from thee and entreat the Lord, and the fly shall depart 
from Pharoh, from his servants, and from his people to-mor- 
row : only let not Pharoh deal falsely any more, not to let the 



EXODUS VIII. 1-15. 85 

people go to sacrifice to the Lord. 30. And Moses went out 
from Pharoh, and entreated the Lord. 31. And the Lord did 
according to the word of Moses, and removed the fly from 
Pharoh, from his servants, and from his people : not one 
remained. 32. And Pharoh hardened his heart at this time 
also ; neither did he let the people go. If 11. 

In this chapter we have the plagues of the frogs, the lice, and the 
fly grouped together, probably because they all belong to the smaller 
tribes of animals. In the conception of the author, however, it is 
evident that the two former, with the change of water into blood, 
constitute the first triad of judicial visitations, as two of them are 
announced beforehand and the third not, according to a law which is 
observed in each triad. 

1-15. The plague of frogs. Go in to Pharoh. This infliction is 
to be announced to Pharoh in his palace, as the former was by the 
river side (vii. 15). The request for leave to depart is repeated, and 
in case of refusal the plague of frogs is threatened. 3, 4. The river 
shall swarm with frogs. Frogs abound in Egypt. They appear, 
when the river overflows the country, in all the pools of water. The 
common frog, the green or edible frog (rana esculenta), and the 
speckled frog (rana punctata), are found in Egypt. The number 
of eggs in the spawn of a single frog varies from one thousand to 
fifteen hundred. The appearance of these animals in considerable 
numbers on land is generally preceded and accompanied by heavy 
storms of rain (Kitto's Cyclopaedia). Such an accompaniment would 
render the visitation more appalling to the Egyptians. 

The phraseology here is similar to that employed in the six days' 
creation (Gen. i. 20). Miracles are not the less supernatural because 
their products are natural objects previously well-known, as frogs, or 
are placed in ordinary circumstances, as frogs in the standing water of 
a river, or are even arranged in natural succession, as frogs in the 
Nile after its change of color. The Author of nature does not put 
himself out of all relation with the laws he has imposed on nature 
when he introduces a new effect of his power into the sphere of 
nature. His wondrous deeds come under the law of reason, and 



86 THE PLAGUE OF FBOGS. 

therefore fall in with the law of nature. The miracle consists in the 
event described, (1) happening accordingly ; (2) in the circumstances 
predicted, or at the word of command; (3) without any ordinary 
causes either existing or having had time to dperate ; and (4) further, 
it may be at an unusual season, and in an unusually magnified form. 
The last condition, however, is not absolutely necessary. The event 
is described with considerable minuteness in these two verses. It is 
evidently aggravated beyond the usual form. The frogs venture 
into the houses, the sleeping apartments, the very beds. They pene- 
trate into the ovens and kneading-troughs. The baking oven was 
often a round hole, three feet deep, and plastered with mud. This 
was heated by burning brushwood in it. The dough was then spread 
with the hand on its sides, and speedily baked (Layard's Nineveh). 
A pot of earthenware, of nearly the same shape, was also employed 
for the same purpose, the fire being placed within, and the dough 
applied without. Into such a vessel or pit, when unemployed, the 
frogs might easily enter. They even leap upon the person (" on 
thee "), probably when reclining for repose. The annoyance of such 
a visitation can hardly be conceived. 

5-7. Aaron stretching forth his hand, with the wand of power, is 
here the sign, equivalent to the word of command. The rivers, see 
vii. 19. Upon the land. Their usual place was the river. Covered 
the land. This extraordinary abundance on the land accounts for 
their intrusion into the apartments and utensils of the people. Here 
the event takes place, according to the description, at the sign of com- 
mand, without any ordinary cause. Frogs are not usually spawned, 
transformed into tadpoles, and then into frogs, and spread over a 
country in the course of a few minutes. The magicians imitated this 
miracle, no doubt at the summons of Pharoh, it is needless to inquire 
how. It would have been more to the purpose if by their enchant- 
ments they had cleared the land of them. 

8-15. The removal of the frogs. And Pharoh called for 3Ioses 
and Aaron. He is at length moved. Having at his command all the 
resources of sovereignty, he may have been tolerably supplied with 
well-water, even when the river flowed with blood. He did not feel 
much personal inconvenience from the former plague. But he cannot 
escape the presence and contact of these loathsome creatures. He 



EXODUS VHI. 8-15. 87 

suffers more from their offensive intrusion than his meanest subjects. 
He must take all means to escape from this unutterable pest. His 
hieroglyphs fail him in the hour of need. Else, he would never have 
had recourse to Moses and Aaron. Entreat the Lord. Here is an 
explicit acknowledgment of the Lord forced from him who said, 
" Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice ? I know not the 
Lord" (vs. 2). Let him take away the frogs. He only who sent 
them can take them away. This is Pharoh's present experience. 
And I will let the people go. He now humbly promises, who once and 
again had said, " I will not let Israel go." His former language is 
now completely revoked. It remains to be seen whether the will 
corresponds with the word. 

9—11. Prescribe unto me when I shall entreat for thee. The original 
means, either " glory over me, defy me, by setting the time when I 
am to do this " or determine for me." The former is a challenge to 
Pharoh to defy him (Moses) to work the miracle at a prescribed time. 
The latter is simply leaving the time of performance to be determined 
by Pharoh. This is the easier sense, and is involved in the former. 
Only in the river, the element in which they are usually seen, when 
they appear at all. When they retire for hibernation they are not 
open to common observation, 

12-15. And the Lord did according to the word of Moses. This is 
the second and decisive part of the miracle. The frogs suddenly die 
out of the land, are gathered in heaps or measures, and emit a griev- 
ous stench. Thus at the word of Moses they come, and at his word 
they go. There is a power here above nature. The God of nature 
is with Moses. He accomplishes what the magicians did not attempt. 
Pharoh, however, thinks not of this demonstration of the divine power 
and mercy, but only of the " respite." On obtaining relief his obdu- 
racy of heart returns. His promise, it now appears, was from the lip, 
not the heart. 

The plague of frogs was fraught with its own lessons to all parties 
concerned. One of the feeblest and most harmless of living creatures 
was by its miraculous multiplication made a source of greater distress 
to Pharoh than even the turning of the Nile into blood ; compelling 
him to confess the impotence of his own gods and their attendants, to 
acknowledge the omnipotence of Jehovah, to implore the intercession 



88 THE PLAGUE OF LICE. 

of his ministers, and to promise all that was demanded of him. God 
has at hand in the weakest things the most abundant means and the 
most unexpected ways of chastising the transgressor. The frog, 
moreover, had a certain significance to Egypt. It was the symbol of 
human life in embryo. In the hieroglyphics it sat on a ring, one of 
the emblems of life, and from its back rose a palm branch, the symbol 
of the month or of time. The frog-headed god is a form of Pthah, 
the creative or formative principle. Whatever mysterious connection 
the frog had with life in the mind of an Egyptian, it is evident that 
the reptile lives and dies at the will of the God of Moses. Whatever 
divinity or divine attribute was ascribed to it, or denoted by it, the 
frog itself is but an inferior creature of the true God, moving in a 
sphere immeasurably beneath that of man, and unconsciously fulfilling 
its humble function in the economy of nature. This base creature is 
now made to bend the refractory will of proud Pharoh. 

16-19. The plague of lice. We are now come to the third plague. 
No warning is here given to Pharoh. His treacherous dealing had 
forfeited even this measure of forbearance. Say unto Aaron. As in 
the former two of this triad, the performance is assigned to Aaron. 
Smite the dust of the land. The frogs had their source in the rivers 
and ponds ; the lice in the dust of the land. The latter plague is thus 
the complement of the former. And it shall become lice. The reasons 
for retaining this version have been already assigned ; to which it is 
only necessary to add that vermin of the kind is one of the common 
annoyances of Egypt. Herodotus tells us (ii. 37) that the priests 
shave their whole body every other day, that no lice or other impure 
thing may adhere to them when they are engaged in the service of 
the gods. It is manifest that this species of vermin was particularly 
disgusting to the Egyptians ; and it is said that in the space of a year 
one of these creatures will produce five thousand eggs or nits. On 
man and on beast. This is one of the aggravations of this plague. 
The stream of blood was a distant object, which could be alleviated 
by digging for water. The frogs were a loathsome and disgusting 
nuisance in the houses and on the furniture of the people ; but still 
they did not ordinarily come into contact with their persons, or inflict 
pain. The lice, on the other hand, inhabited the skin, sucked the 
blood, caused a disagreeable itching, created a feeling of uncleanness, 



EXODUS Vm. 16-20. 89 

and threatened to become a disease of the most frightful description. 
And could not. The magicians of Pharoh attempt to imitate this mir- 
acle, but fail. This is a second point in which this miracle surpasses 
the others. Even so minnte an animal as this they are unable to pro- 
duce. This is the finger of God. They are obliged to confess that 
this was the effect of divine power. It is obvious, however, that this 
was said to cover their defeat ; and therefore their meaning is, that this 
visitation was brought on by the ordinary providence and power of 
God, and not by any magic art or miraculous power, either of Moses 
and Aaron, or of themselves. This accounts for the persistence of 
Pharoh in his obstinacy. Adopting the solution of his counsellors, he 
regards this event no longer as a sign or wonder wrought by the min- 
isters of Jehovah, but as a mere effect of the general providence of 
God, and therefore to be borne with patience so long as it should 
last. 

This plague was not without its weighty lessons. A still more 
minute and contemptible animal was now made a source of extreme 
annoyance to the Egyptians. It infested all men, priests as well as 
others, and therefore unfitted them for entering the temples of their 
gods. It appeared on all beasts, sacred as well as profane, and there- 
fore on all the animals that were regarded as divinities ; and it defiled 
everything it touched. Thus contempt was brought on everything 
that was vainly imagined to be sacred among the Egyptians. Next, 
the miracle-mongers of Egypt are confessedly unable to produce as 
well as to remove this grievous and loathsome infliction ; and hence, 
we may infer they were equally unable to call into or bid out of exis- 
tence any other conceivable thing. Lastly, their ready insinuation 
that this was an event coming from the hand of providence, and not a 
judgment from Jehovah, inflicted through his ministers, is accepted by 
Pharoh, not because it is well founded, but because it accords with 
his wish. 

viii. 20. -ix. 12. This passage contains the second triad of plagues, 
in which God acts without the intervention of any sign on the part of 
his servants. In the third, indeed, Moses sprinkles the ashes towards 
heaven, but still makes no sign with the rod. Thus it is made plain 
that the true wonder-worker is not tied to any mode of introducing 
12 



90 THE PLAGUE OF FLIES. 

his wonders. From this time forward, also, a distinction is put be- 
tween the Israelites and the Egyptians. The former seem to have 
been partial sufferers in the first three plagues. They needed the 
chastisement ; and their habitual attachment to the land of their birth 
was gradually abated by the afflictions, thus associated with it. 

20-32. The plague of flies inflicted. Rise up early in the morning. 
This plague, like the first, is announced to Pharoh in the morning, 
and by the river's side. Leave to depart is requested for the people 
of God, as on other occasions. The fly. This term serves to denote 
a kind of insect that -alights on the skin or the leaves of plants, by 
its bite inflicting pain in the one case, and causing destruction in 
the other. The swarms of flies in Egypt are usually numerous and 
excessively annoying. They alight on the moist parts of the eyelids 
and nostrils, and inflict wounds that produce great pain, swelling, 
and inflammation. They are also ruinous to the plants in which they 
lay their eggs. Philo (vit. Mos. ii. p. 110) describes the dog-fly or 
gad-fly as a grievous pest of Egypt. Gnats and mosquitoes are also 
abundant and virulent. A plague of such creatures would cause im- 
mense suffering and desolation. Even the ground whereon they are. 
The whole land in which the Egyptians dwell will be infested with 
this fly. 22. And I luill sever, make distinct, and even wonderful, 
both of which thoughts are implied in the verb. The land of Goshen, 
in which the Israelites dwell (stand), shall be free from this and the 
following inflictions. That thou mayest know. Everything God does 
has a lesson for the intelligent observer. lam the Lord in the midst 
of the land. As the stroke falls upon the Egyptians, and not on the 
Israelites, it is manifest, (1) that it has come from the God of the 
Hebrews ; (2) that this great Being has equal power in Egypt as 
elsewhere ; and (3) that therefore he is Jehovah, the Creator and 
Upholder of all things, the one only true and living God. A division 
(n^S), a release, an untying of the connection between them. To- 
morrow. At a fixed point of time shall this plague make its ap- 
pearance. Time for reflection is thus given to Pharoh. The mirac- 
ulous nature of the event is also demonstrated. The sign. It is 
appropriately called a sign, as it bears evidence to all the important 
truths which have been already noticed. A grievous fly, grievous on 
account of its numbers and noxious effects. The land was destroyed. 



EXODUS VIII. 25-30. 91 

The verdure with which the earth was now covered was seriously 
damaged by its attacks. 

25-32. The removal of the fly on the intercession of Moses and 
Aaron. And Pharoh called Moses and Aaron. His conjurors are 
now no longer mentioned. He is compelled to appeal again to the 
servants of Jehovah. Go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land. The 
time for sacrifice is here conceded, but not the place. It is not meet 
so to do. It is not right in a moral point of view. The reason is 
assigned in the following verse. The abomination of Mizraim is either 
that which Egypt abominates, or that which the Lord abominates in 
Egypt. In this case, as the Egyptians were idolaters, the two mean- 
ings in a great measure coincide. The matter and manner of the 
Hebrew sacrifice would be an abomination to the Egyptian. The 
matter, for the cow was sacred to Isis, the goat was worshipped by 
the Mendesians, the ram by the Thebans, and the bull by the Mem- 
phians and others ; the manner, because the minute and punctilious 
ritual of the Egyptians in regard to the cleanness of the victims would 
not be observed. The sacrificing of animals whom they worshipped, 
and without the regulations of a superstitious purity, would prompt 
them to stone the worshippers. On the other hand, the bulls of Mem- 
phis, of Heliopolis, and of Hermonthis, the ram of Thebes, the goat of 
Mendes, and the other animals worshipped by the Egyptians, could not 
but be an abomination to the holy and living and true God. 27. As he 
shall say unto us. The Lord had not yet prescribed the manner of 
sacrifice, but only the place. 28-30. Pharoh now gives a reluctant per- 
mission, on which Moses promises the removal of the fly by his interces- 
sion, and admonishes Pharoh not to be false a second time to his word. 
31, 32. The Lord removes the fly at the appointed time (to-morrow) 
with as much ease as he had brought it. This is the second and 
most decisive part of the miracle. Pharoh having no moral principle, 
returns to his obduracy of heart as soon as the pressure is removed. 

Even creatures that came under the designation of the fly were 
connected with the animal M r orship of the Egyptians. The beetle 
(scaraheus) was one of the most common sacred emblems of Egypt, 
and represented the sun. The large class of diminutive creatures to 
which it belongs is here raised up for the chastisement of the nation, 
and removed again at the intercession of Moses. The relief of the 



92 PESTILENCE, BOILS, AND HAIL. 

Israelites from the plague was calculated to detach them still more 
from the nation and territory of Egypt, and attach them with a more 
enlightened confidence and veneration to the God of their fathers. 



VII. THIRD THREE PLAGUES.— Ex. ix. 13- x. 
CHAP. IX.— THE PLAQUES OF (5) PESTILENCE, (6) BOILS, (7) HAIL. 

3. *Q*i pestilence ; r. follow, persecute, destroy. It applies to men 
as well as cattle. 

8. rnQ ashes, dust, alOaX-q (Sept.); r. blow away. *)£323 furnace. 
Smelting furnace, or limekiln (Kimchi). IsiSPj baking oven. 

9. pna fine dust, or powder ; r. turn, whirl. 

10. "pna boil, enflamed sicelling. p&asaK blains, pustules ; <J>\vk- 
rtSes (Sept.) ; r. burst or gush forth. 

IX. 1. Then the Lord said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharoh, 
and tell him, Thus saith the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, 
Let rny people go and serve me. 2. For if thou refuse to let 
them go, and wilt hold them still, 3. Behold, the hand of 
the Lord is upon thy cattle which is in the field, upon the 
horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and 
upon the sheep, as a very grievous pestilence. 4. And the 
Lord shall sever between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of 
Mizraim, and nothing shall die of all that belongs to the sons 
of Israel. 5. And the Lord appointed a set time, saying, To- 
morrow the Lord shall do this thing in the land. 6. And the 
Lord did this thing on the morrow ; and all the cattle of Miz- 
raim died ; but of the cattle of the sons of Israel died not one. 
7. And Pharoh sent, and, behold, not even one of the cattle of 
Israel was dead. And Pharoh' s heart was hardened, and he 
did not let the people go. ^J 12. 

8. And the Lord said unto Moses and unto Aaron, Take to 



EXODUS ix. 93 

you the hands full of ashes of the furnace, and let Moses 
sprinkle it toward the sky in the sight of Pharoh. 9. And it 
shall become dust in all the land of Mizraim ; and shall be a 
boil breaking forth with blains upon man and upon beast in all 
the land of Mizraim. 10. And they took ashes of the furnace 
and stood before Pharoh, and Moses sprinkled it toward the 
sky ; and it became a boil breaking forth with blains upon 
man and upon beast. 11. And the scribes could not stand 
before Moses because of the boil : for the boil was upon the 
scribes and upon all Mizraim. 12. And the Lord hardened 
Pharoh's heart, and he hearkened not unto them ; as the 
Lord had spoken unto Moses. § 8. 

13. And the Lord said unto Moses, Rise up early in the 
morning and stand before Pharoh, and say unto him, Thus 
saith the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, Let my people go and 
serve me. 14. For at this time I will send all my plagues 
into thy heart, and on thy servants, and on thy people ; that 
thou mayest know that there is none like me in all the earth. 
15. For now I had stretched out my hand and smitten thee 
and thy people with the pestilence ; and thou wouldst have 
been cut off from the earth. 16. But for this have I raised 
thee up, to show thee my power, and to declare my name in 
all the earth. 17. As yet thou exaltest thyself against my 
people, that thou wilt not let them go. 18. Behold at this 
time fro-morrow I will rain a very grievous hail, such as hath 
not been in Mizraim from the day of its foundation even until 
now. 19. Send now, therefore, and bring in thy cattle and 
all that thou hast in the field : for upon every man or beast 
which is found in the field, and is not gathered into the house, 
the hail shall come down, and they shall die. 20. He that 
feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharoh 
made his servants and his cattle flee into the houses. 21. 



94 PESTILENCE, BOILS, AND HALL. 

And he that set not his heart to the word of the Lord left his 
servants and his cattle in the field. ^[ 13. 

22. And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch forth thy hand 
toward heaven, and let there be hail in all the land of Miz- 
raim, upon man and upon beast, and upon every herb of the 
field in the land of Mizraim. 23. And Moses stretched forth his 
rod toward heaven ; and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and 
fire fell upon the earth ; and the Lord rained hail upon the 
land of Mizraim. 24. And there was hail, and fire flashing 
amidst the hail, very grievous, such as was not in all the land 
of Mizraim since it became a nation. 25. And the hail smote 
in all the land of Mizraim all that was in the field from man 
to beast, and the hail smote every herb of the field, and brake 
every tree of the field. 26. Only in the land of Goshen, where 
the sons of Israel were, was there no hail. 

27. And Pharoh sent and called Moses and Aaron, and said 
unto them, I have sinned this time : the Lord is righteous, 
and I and my people are wicked. 28. Entreat the Lord, and 
let there be no more thunderings of God and hail; and I will 
let you go, and ye shall stay no longer. 29. And Moses said 
unto him, When I come out of the city, I will spread abroad 
my hands unto the Lord : the thunderings shall cease, neither 
shall there be any more hail, that thou mayest know that the 
earth is the Lord's. 30. And as for thee and thy servants, I 
know that ye do not fear the Lord God. 31. And the flax 
and the barley were smitten, for the barley was in the ear, 
and the flax was boiled. 32. And the wheat and the spelt 
were not smitten, for they are late. 33. And Moses came out 
of the city from Pharoh, and spread abroad his hands to the 
Lord ; and the thunders and hail ceased, and rain was not 
poured on the earth. 34. And Pharoh saw that the rain and 
the hail and the thunders were ceased, and he sinned yet 









EXODUS IX. 1-7. 95 

more, and hardened his heart, he and his servants. 35. And 
Pharoh's heart was hardened, neither did he let the sons of 
Israel go ; as the Lord had spoken by the hand of Moses. 

15. TOT 14. 

In this chapter we have the plagues of pestilence, boils, and hail. 
The first two complete the second triad and close the section in which 
they are contained. 

1-7. The plague of pestilence. Go in unto Pharoh. As in the 
second plague of the former triad (viii. 1), And wilt hold them still. 
This is added to mark the pertinacity of Pharoh, notwithstanding 
the severe chastisements he had already suffered for his obstinacy. 
3. The hand of the Lord. This will be more manifest, as no waving 
of the rod or hand precedes the appearance of the miracle. Upon thy 
cattle (rnpo), a general name for all domestic animals, that constitute 
a great part of the property of a pastoral or agricultural people- 
Which is in the field. This limits the extent of the pestilence to the 
animals that were in the open air. Horses. The first notice of these 
is in Gen. xlvii. 17. Egypt was celebrated for its horses, which 
appear on its sculptures. They were employed in the chariot of 
war or state. The object of worship at Memphis, Heliopolis, and 
Hermonthis was the bull; at Thebes the ram, at Mendes the goat. 
The sheep here ("J^'s) are the small cattle, including the goats. 
Asses are mentioned on the monuments of Egypt. They were used 
for riding or draught. The Bactrian camel has two humps, the 
Arabian one. The latter was known and employed on the border- 
land between Egypt and Arabia ; but has not been found on the 
ancient monuments of the former country. Its presence here favors 
the supposition that the northeast part of Egypt was at the time 
under a dynasty of the Shepherd kings, who came from Arabia. A 
very grievous pestilence. We follow the original here in using the 
more general term, pestilence ("i^), as we find it also employed in 
reference to the human species (vs. 15). The miracle consists in its 
being very grievous, in being sent at an appointed time (vs. 5) and in 
being limited to the cattle of the Egyptians. A severance takes place 
here, as in the preceding plague (viii. 22). To-morrow. A set time 



96 PESTILENCE, BOILS, AND HAIL. 

of inflicting the stroke is as significant of the divine intervention as a 
set time of withdrawing it (viii. 29). 6. All the cattle of Mizraim. 
This is to be limited to the kinds already mentioned, and also to those 
of them that were in the field (vs. 3). Wilkinson (Ancient Egyptians, 
2d series, I. p. 96) informs us that some animals were stall-fed among 
the Egyptians. This explains the limitation, "in the field," and the 
existence of some cattle among the Egyptians after the pestilence 
had done its work (vs. 19). 7. And Pharoh? s heart was hardened. 
We may suppose that the pestilence among the cattle did not much 
affect him personally, and that he was irritated to find that the cattle 
of the Israelites had escaped. 

Hitherto the plagues had given great personal annoyance, but had 
not involved much loss of property. But now the hand of the correc- 
tor comes down upon the main branch of the country's wealth. Cattle, 
besides being a chief means of food and clothing, were employed by 
the Egyptians in treading the seed into the ground, in treading out 
the corn, and in conveying the produce of the country to the place of 
storage. The destruction of cattle was therefore a serious loss to the 
Egyptian farmer. The hand of the Lord was manifest here in distin- 
guishing the cattle of Israel from that of Mizraim. 

8-12. The plague of boils. This third plague of the second triad is 
not announced to Pharoh. Ashes of the furnace. This is taken to 
be the fine ash or soot of some of the furnaces for the purposes of art 
that stood in the open air. Dust, a fine powder floating in the air, 
and pregnant with disease. A boil (•pntti). This is afterwards men- 
tioned as the boil of Mizraim, and seems therefore to be an endemic 
disease. Various conjectures have been offered as to its nature, but 
none of them is satisfactory. The description of it bears some resem- 
blance to elephantiasis, a dreadful form of leprosy prevalent in Egypt, 
so called because it makes the feet swollen and stiff, like the Elephant's 
feet. But this disease does not attack the brute creation. The scribes 
could not stand before Moses. At the third plague the magicians of 
Pharoh failed in their enchantments, and acknowledged the finger of 
God. At this, the second third, they hasten away from Moses covered 
with shame and humiliation. The punctilious attention of the Egyp- 
tians to personal cleanliness is noted by Herodotus. In particular, the 
priests shave their whole body every other day. Their dress is 



EXODUS IX. 13-21. 97 

entirely of linen. They bathe twice every day in cold water, and 
twice each night (Herodotus, ii. 37). Their confusion and distress 
therefore must have been great to find themselves now covered with 
an eruptive disease, that mocked all their precautions, and rendered 
them unfit for their sacerdotal duties. And the Lord hardened 
Pharoh's heart. Here it is to be observed that the very means that 
would have brought an unabiassed and unclouded mind to conviction 
and submission only begat a stolid and infatuated obstinacy in the 
monarch of Egypt. The course of the divine interposition has been 
one of uniform mildness and forbearance, only proceeding to judicial 
chastisements when negotiation would not avail, and advancing grad- 
ually to severer measures only when the more gentle were dis- 
regarded. His obduracy is now come to such a pitch of stupidity 
that we cannot catch a shadow of reason for his conduct. 

Hitherto the Lord has tried to move the heart of the king by a 
series of external privations and penalties. The want of water, the 
presence of a loathsome reptile, the creeping and biting of a nauseous 
insect, the fierce stinging of the fly swarm, and the loss occasioned by 
the pestilence among the cattle, have been all in vain. Now the life 
is menaced. A boil breaking out in blains or open sores has fallen 
upon man and beast. We may be sure that the sacred animals that 
were objects of worship would not escape this plague ; and we may 
imagine what consternation this would create throughout all Egypt. 

This closes the second section relating to the plagues. Allowing a 
week for each of the six plagues already recorded, and twenty days 
for the previous transactions, we are brought to the 3d of March at 
the end of the sixth plague. 

ix. 13- x. Tins section contains the record of the next three plagues 
— the hail, the locusts, and the darkness. These rise in terrific 
severity above all that precede them. 

13-21. The hail threatened. As usual in the first of each triad, 
Moses is to meet Pharoh at the usual time, and probably in the usual 
place, to demand the release of the people, and announce the imme- 
diate consequence of refusal. All my plagues. This expression 
occurring in the announcement of the first of another three, is an 
indication of the ternary arrangement. It refers to all the following 
13 



98 THE HAIL THREATENED. 

manifestations of the divine power, at least to those which form the 
third series of plagues. Into thy heart. By the following judgments 
Pharoh will be at length brought to feel in his heart the folly and 
guilt of resisting the Almighty. None like me in all the earth. The 
Egyptians, like the other Gentiles, had now wandered away from the 
true notion concerning God which had come down from their fore- 
fathers. The false gods, fashioned after the vain fancies of a dis- 
orderly imagination, bore no moral resemblance to the true God. 
Pharoh is now to learn this great fact in his experience, if not in his 
understanding and his heart. I had stretched out my hand. I might 
have smitten thee and thy people with the pestilence as easily as I 
smote thy cattle, and thou wouldest have been annihilated, thyself 
and all thy opposition to my reasonable demands. The Lord here 
gives us some insight into the theory of his administration. It is 
instructive, corrective, and in the last resort punitive ; but in no case 
merely destructive of moral agents He that would sweep into 
instant annihilation all the opponents of his will has no idea of God's 
principle of action or mode of dealing with his rational creatures. 
Not even a particle of irrational matter is bidden out of existence by 
the great God who called it into being. Still less will his moral and 
responsible creatures be sent out of existence, or at once forced into 
submission by the high hand of an irresistible despotism. He will 
approach them with love, with reason, with justice. Only when such 
methods fail, will he have recourse to a patient and duly tempered cor- 
rection. And Pharoh will be an example to all contemporary nations, 
and, through the books of Moses, to all succeeding generations, of the 
mercy, patience, forbearance, justice, and holiness of God. But for 
this have I raised thee up ; not stricken thee down with the pestilence, 
but preserved thee from it in my long-suffering patience. To show 
thee my power. To convince thee while thou livest, and there is yet 
time to repent, if thou wilt be convinced, of my power, my eternal 
power and Godhead, in contrast with all impotent and imaginary gods 
in whom thou hast heretofore trusted. And to declare my name in 
all the earth, to make thy history a perpetual lesson for the instruc- 
tion of all mankind in the knowledge of my name, my real nature, 
which has come to be so grievously and fatally misapprehended. As 
yet thou exaltest thyself. Thou still persistest in thy haughty refusal. 



EXODUS IX. 17-30. 99 

There is a sublime dignity in the continued moderation which this 
expostulation displays. 

17-21. At this time to-morrow. Pharoh might have learned by 
this time that the Lord is punctual to his time. A very grievous hail. 
Showers of hail in the winter season were not unknown in Egypt, as 
even the present passage informs us. But this is to be such as had 
not been since Egypt was founded, that is, since it became a nation 
(vs. 24). Send now, therefore, and bring in thy cattle. The Lord 
here remembers mercy, and leaves an opening for faith to assert itself. 
He looks for believers even among the Egyptians ; and he did not 
look in vain. This warning divided them into two classes, the one 
fearing the Lord, and the other still disregarding him. 

22-26. On the morrow the performance comes. Stretch forth thy 
hand, with the wand of power (vs. 23). Moses is described as the 
agent in these three plagues (x. 12, 21). Thunder, voices (nVp), 
voices of God, as Pharoh expresses it (vs. 28). The primitive mind 
regarded the thunder-peal as the sublimest utterance of the God of 
nature. Philosophy and theology alike bow to the solemn sentiment 
that the heavens declare the glory of God. The thunder is but one 
note in the great accord of universal nature in which he speaks to us 
of himself. Fire fell upon the earth, the lightning-flash, of which the 
thunder-clap was the accompaniment. Flashing, darting suddenly, and 
seizing upon its object. Smote every herb, and brake every tree. The 
lightning and hail that killed every man and beast were sufficient to 
destroy the green leaves and stalks of the herbs, and the branches 
as well as foliage of the trees. Only in the land of Goshen. Here 
again Israel is exempted from the effects of this judgment, as we 
have no doubt they were from the preceding one, though it be not 
mentioned. 

27-30. Pharoh is again overwhelmed by this judgment, and for the 
third time promises submission. I have sinned this time. Now, at 
length, I acknowledge that I have sinned. The loss of his servants 
and cattle, with the awful lightnings and thunderings, brings a dawn- 
ing conviction into his mind that God is right and he is wrong. The 
expression of this in words is needed, after having twice asked and 
obtained remission, and as often falsified his word. Let there be no 
more thunderings of God. Let it be enough (3"]), and no more of 



100 PHAROH CONFESSES HIS SIN. 

these awful voices. And ye shall stay no longer. A promise of im- 
mediate dismissal. True to his character of giving heed to the latest 
and feeblest appeal to his mercy, the Lord is ready to withdraw his 
heavy hand. When I come out of the city. We learn here incident- 
ally that Pharoh dwelt in a city. The probability is in favor of On 
or Bubastis, from their proximity to the Nile and the situation of 
the Israelites. That thou mayest know that the earth is the Lord's. 
Another proof of this great fact is to be afforded to Pharoh, if he have 
only the heart to understand the lesson. 30. / know that ye do not 
fear the Lord God. Moses has learned much since he entered upon 
the task of delivering the Lord's people. He can now speak with 
fluency and precision. The Lord has enabled him to judge of the 
character of Pharoh and his court. Here, for the first time since 
Gen. ii. 3, have we Jehovah followed by Elohini in the absolute form. 
This is not without its significance. The grand primeval truth that 
the God of the Hebrews is the absolute and eternal God (dt6«) 
antecedent to all creation, and therefore the only Creator and Up- 
holder of heaven and earth (HllT 1 ), has been presented in the most con- 
spicuous manner to the mind of Pharoh. Moses therefore seasonably 
intimates by the juxtaposition of the two names that Jehovah, the 
God of the Hebrews, is no local or national God, but the sole and 
absolute God. He at the same time intimates that the mere acknowl- 
edgment of this vital truth in words is not sufficient. It is the 
acknowledgment of the heart only that will influence the conduct and 
issue in spontaneous obedience to the will of God, 

31-35. The remission effected. The flax and the barley. Egypt 
was celebrated for its linen. Its mummies we find swathed in this 
fabric. Barley was extensively sown in this country, and was used 
for feeding cattle, and making bread and a kind of ale. The sowing 
time was in October and November. The flax and barley were ripe 
about the end of March, and therefore the one was in the ear and the 
other boiled about the beginning of that month. TJie wheat and the 
spelt. Egypt was most prolific in wheat, which was often seven-head- 
ed, and yielded a hundredfold. It was in some measure the granary 
of the ancient world, as well as the great mart for flax or linen. Rye 
was not a grain cultivated in Egypt, as it belongs to colder countries. 
The grain here rendered spelt may have been that which is now 



EXODUS X. 101 

known as doora. These grains ripened a month later than the barley 
and flax. This crop was therefore only injured, not destroyed, by 
the hail. He sinned yet more. Pharoh had confessed his sin, but it 
appears that this confession was extorted from him not by a penitent 
heart, but by an overpowering terror (vs. 30). As the Lord had 
spoken by the hand of Moses. This announcement of Moses (vs. 30) 
was calculated to convince Pharoh, if he had been disposed to give 
heed to it, that he with whom he had to do was the searcher of hearts, 
and could not be deceived by a hypocritical pretence. 

By this act of judgment a moiety of the crop of Egypt was de- 
stroyed, while the minds of Pharoh and his courtiers were evidently 
awe-struck by the thunder-storm. It is manifest that the Lord is step 
by step advancing to the universal desolation of Egypt. The super- 
natural character of this storm is demonstrated by its coming at the 
time predicted, ceasing at the intercession of Moses, and confining 
itself to the land of the Egyptians. 



CHAP. X.— THE PLAGUES OF (8) LOCUSTS, (9) DARKNESS. 

4. i"i2^ locust. This is so called from its numbers; r. be many. 
It is supposed to be the gryllus gregarius, or passage-locust. 

X. 1. And the Lord said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharoh : 
for I have hardened his heart and the heart, of his servants, 
that I may put these my signs upon him. 2. And that thou 
mayest tell in the ears of thy son, and of thy son's son, that 
which I wrought in Mizraim, and my signs which I put upon 
them ; and ye shall know that I am the Lord. 3. And Moses 
and Aaron went in unto Pharoh, and said unto him, Thus 
saith the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, How long dost thou 
refuse to humble thyself before me ? Let my people go and 
serve me. 4. For if thou refuse to let my people go, behold, 
to-morrow will I bring the locust into thy border. 5. And 
they shall cover the face of the land, so that one cannot see 



102 



LOCUSTS AND DARKNESS. 



the land, and they shall eat the residue of that which is 
escaped, which remained unto you from the hail, and shall 
eat every tree which groweth for you out of the field : 6. And 
they shall fill thy houses, and the houses of all thy servants, 
and the houses of all Mizraim ; which neither thy fathers nor 
thy father's fathers have seen since the day that they were 
upon the ground unto this day. And he turned and went out 
from Pharoh. 

7. And Pharoh' s servants said unto him, How long shall 
this man be a snare unto us ? Let the men go and serve 
the Lord their God : knowest thou not yet that Mizraim is 
destroyed? 8. And Moses and Aaron were brought back unto 
Pharoh ; and he said unto them, Go, serve the Lord your God: 
Who are they that go ? 9. And Moses said, With our young 
and with our old will we go, with our sons and with our 
daughters ; with our flocks and with our herds will we go, for 
we hold a feast unto the Lord. 10. And he said unto them, 
The Lord be so with you, as I will let you and your little ones 
go: look ye that evil is before you. 11. Not so: go now ye 
men and serve the Lord ; for that ye did desire. And they 
were driven out from Pharoh's presence. § 9. 

12. And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thy hand 
over the land of Mizraim for the locust, and they shall come 
up on the land of Mizraim, and eat every herb of the land, 
all that the hail hath left. 13. And Moses stretched out his 
hand over the land of Mizraim; and the Lord sent an east 
wind upon the land all that day and all the night : the morn- 
ing came, and the east wind brought the locusts. 14. And 
the locusts came up over all the land of Mizraim, and rested 
in all the border of Mizraim : very grievous were they, before 
them were no such locusts as they, neither after them shall be 
such. 15. And they covered the face of the whole land, and 



EXODUS X. 103 

the land was darkened ; and they ate every herb of the land, 
and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left : and 
there remained not any green thing in the trees or in the 
herbs of the field in all the land of Mizraim. 

16. Then Pharoh hastened to call Moses and Aaron : and 
he said, I have sinned against the Lord your God, and against 
you. 17. And now forgive, I pray, my sin only this once, 
and entreat the Lord your God ; and let him take away from 
me this death only. 18. And he came out from Pharoh and 
entreated the Lord. 19. And the Lord turned a very strong- 
west wind, and took away the locusts, and cast them into the 
Red Sea: there remained not one locust in all the border of 
Mizraim. 20. And the Lord hardened Pharoh's heart, and 
he did not let the sojis of Israel go. ^[15. 

21. And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thy hand 
toward the sky, and let there be darkness over the land of 
Mizraim ; and let the darkness be felt. 22. And Moses 
stretched out his hand toward the sky : and there was a thick 
darkness in all the land of Mizraim three days. 23. They 
saw not one another, neither rose any one from his place for 
three days : and all the sons of Israel had light in their dwell- 
ings. 24. And Pharoh called Moses and said, Go ye, serve 
the Lord ; only your flocks and your herds shall be stayed : 
even your little ones may go with you. 25. And Moses said, 
Thou must also give into our hand sacrifices and burnt-offer- 
ings, and we shall sacrifice unto the Lord our God. 26. Our 
cattle, then, also shall go with us, not a hoof shall be left 
behind ; for thereof must we take to serve the Lord our God : 
and we know not with what we shall serve the Lord until we 
go thither. 27. And the Lord hardened Pharoh's heart, and 
he would not let them go. 28. And Pharoh said unto him, 
Get thee from me : take heed to thyself; see my face no more, 



104 LOCUSTS AND DAKKNESS. 

for in the day thou seest my face thou shalt die. 29. And 
Moses said, Well hast thou spoken : I will see thy face no 
more. ^f 16. 

This chapter completes the record of the third group of plagues. 

1-20. The plague of locusts. Go in unto Pharoh, into his palace 
in the city, as in the second of each series (viii. 1, ix. 1). For I have 
hardened his heart. A mode of treatment calculated to have a salutary 
effect on a reasonable mind has produced an opposite effect on a proud 
and unreasonable temper. That I may -put these my signs upon him. 
To put here (n^d) is to set before the view of all for their instruction. 
In him (iaipa) means in his inmost experience, so as to touch his 
feelings to the quick (ix. 14). And that thou may est tell. These 
marvels of Egypt are to be a lesson not only for the present, but for 
all future generations, who may hearken to the recollections of their 
fathers, or read the books of Moses. And ye shall Inow that I am the 
Lord. The grand scope of all these signs was to reveal the Creator 
in his true character to man. This is the lesson of nature, of prov- 
idence, and of grace, to those who read and understand. 3. How 
long dost thou refuse to humble thyself before me ? Eight signs, one of 
them instructive and seven corrective, had already been given to him. 
His haughtiness of spirit is not , subdued ; to humble himself, even 
before God, he has not yet learned. 4. The locust. The descriptions 
of Joel (i. ii.) and many other eye-witnesses have made us famil- 
iar with the locust and its desolating progress. The class to which 
they belong is described by Moses in Lev. xi. 21, 23, and four 
species, including the one here mentioned (fD^l*), are pronounced 
clean and edible. The native place of the locust is the south of Asia 
and the parts of Africa south and west of Egypt. These insects are 
about three or four inches long, have four wings and four feet, the hind 
legs being adapted for springing. They resemble in form the common 
grasshopper. The locust, after leaving the egg, exists in three 
states — the larva, the pupa, and the perfect insect. The larva has 
no wings the pupa has only the rudiments of them, and they are fully 
developed only in the perfect insect. Of these three the larva is the 
most voracious. They breed in October, laying each about three 
hundred eggs, which they bury in the ground. They make their 



EXODUS X. 7-11. 105 

appearance in March or April, when the verdure is on the ground. 
Their numbers are immense, and in their flight they are said to cover 
thousands of square miles, and consume every green thing where they 
alight. They are used as food, being either cooked whole or ground 
into meal. Into thy border. They came into Egypt generally from 
the south, but also from the east. 5. TJte face of the land. The 
eye (*ps) of the land is the surface, which looks, as it were, towards us. 
That which remaineth unto you from the hail, the wheat and the 
spelt, the other moiety of the crop, and whatsoever fruit was left on 
the trees. 6. They shall f 11 thy houses (Joel ii. 9). They consume 
everything that comes before them, in the house as well as in the 
field. Which neither thy fathers. The miracle consists in the extraor- 
dinary number, size, and destructiveness of these insects, as well as in 
their coming and going according to the word of Moses. 

7—11. The suggestion of Pharoh's servants. How long shall this 
man be a snare ? A pitfall of inevitable destruction to us. The 
magicians and other courtiers of Pharoh understand the state of mat- 
ters better than himself. Let the men go. Let this people depart. 
They feel that they cannot contend with omnipotence. Knowest thou 
not yet f The sovereign, especially if he be despotic, is often the last 
to learn the wretchedness of his country ; as it may be at the risk of 
life that his servants venture to hint at so unwelcome tidings. Pha- 
roh seems to have been in a great measure unconscious of the ruin of 
Egypt. He now condescends to ask who shall go ; a question that 
should have been proposed at the very first. Moses promptly replies 
that all must go, as it was a feast, a solemn assembly of the whole 
nation before the Lord. Look ye that evil is before you. Pharoh, 
refusing to let go " the little ones " — a phrase including the young of 
both sexes, and implying the full-grown women, warns them that 
" evil is before them." This may mean either that evil is in store for 
them, or that evil is in their minds. The former is a menace of the 
effects of his displeasure, if they insisted on all going ; the latter a 
charge of forming a design of leaving the country. The former is 
more in keeping with the expression, " Look ye." The men alone 
are allowed to go, and with this concession they are driven out or 
ignominiously dismissed. Pharoh has become more irritable and vio- 
lent in his manner. 

14 



106 LOCUSTS AND DARKNESS. 

12-15. The locusts sent. The Lord raised an east wind. An 
east wind, in common phrase, means any wind from the sun-rising, 
though it may be a good many points north or south. This indicates 
merely that the present swarm of locusts came not from Ethiopia or 
Lybia, but from Arabia. All that day and all the night. The locust 
appeared in the morning, and therefore may have come from a con- 
siderable distance. " Before them," or " after them," were no such 
locusts. This statement applies to Egypt, and refers to the extraor- 
dinary extent of the present visitation. The land was darkened. It is 
said that the locust swarm, like an opaque cloud, intercepts the light 
of the sun, and leaves the earth in darkness (Plin. Hist. Nat. ii. 29). 
There remained not any green thing. What the hail had left, the 
locusts devoured, and the land was left desolate, a waste and a void 
(VOI liih), destitute alike of the vegetation which adorns and fur- 
nishes it, and of the cattle which form a part of its inhabitants (Gen. 
i. 2 ; Jer. iv. 23). 

16-20. The locusts removed. And Pharoh hastened to call. The 
awful nature of this devastation strikes terror to the heart of Pharoh. 
His will also has become more restless and liable to sudden change. 
/ have sinned. This is the second confession of sin, and the fourth 
time he has been led to entreaty. This death only. Death only seems 
now to await the Egyptians, as their crop has been destroyed and 
their cattle have been greatly diminished. A very strong west wind. 
A moderately blowing east wind carried the locusts in safety over the 
Red Sea into Egypt. A storm or hurricane sweeps them out of the 
country and precipitates them into the waters. This is the usual his- 
tory of these insects. A wind of the sea, that is the Mediterranean, 
taken as a whole, though due west of Palestine, would be northwest 
of the Delta, especially the eastern part of it, and therefore exactly 
fitted to carry the locusts to the Red Sea. And the Lord hardened 
Pharoh' s heart. The very long-suffering of the Lord only adds to the 
infatuation of his ingrate heart. 

21-29. The plague of darkness. This is the third of this series 
and, as usual, no announcement of it is made to Pharoh. Let the 
darkness be felt ; a strong figure to describe the intensity of this 
darkness. Similar is "a thick darkness," literally a darkness of 
gloom. Tliree days. The only natural phenomenon resembling this 






EXODUS X. 21-29. 107 

darkness is the Simoom or Chamsm, which is a hot wind rising about 
the vernal equinox, and blowing for about three days. It rises often 
to a storm, imparts a yellow dimness to the air, and raises such a 
quantity of dust as to have a stifling effect and produce a sombre 
gloom. During these days the inhabitants are wont to descend to the 
lowest rooms of their houses or hide themselves in pits and caverns in 
order to avoid the inconvenience and danger that attend this tempest. 
This darkness differs, however, from the Simoom in these essential 
points : that it is intense in its degree, that it falls upon the land at 
the will of Moses, and that it does not extend to the region where the 
Israelites dwelt. After all the disasters that had just befallen the 
land, we may imagine the dismay and terror that total darkness would 
produce in the minds of the Egyptians. It was equivalent to a uni- 
versal blindness, which would unfit the nation for making any effort to 
attend to the business of life or provide for its continuance. In case 
of its perpetuation they could only await in despair the slow approach 
of death by starvation. Pharoh quails before the appalling darkness. 
He yields another point. The women and children may go with the 
men, but not the flocks and the herds. Moses, however, cannot go to 
hold a national festival unto the Lord without sacrifices. Xot a hoof 
of their cattle must be left behind. Pharoh is again exasperated. 
His proud heart becomes hard as the nether millstone. A reckless 
madness takes possession of him. He forbids Moses to appear before 
him again on pain of death. There is something ominous in the reply 
of Moses. " Well hast thou spoken ; I will see thy face no more." 
He means, as we shall see, more than is here expressed. 

There is an awful significance in this plague of darkness. The sun 
was a leading object of adoration among the Egyptians under the 
name of Osiris. The very name Pharoh means not only the king, 
but also the sun, and characterizes the king himself as the represent- 
ative of the sun, and entitled in some sort to divine honors. But now 
the very light of the sun has disappeared, and primeval chaos seems to 
have returned. Thus all the forms of Egyptian will-worship have 
been covered with shame and confusion in those nine plagues. 

Allowing a week for each of the two previous plagues, and four 
days for this one, we are brought to the 21st of March, and perhaps 
to the eve of that night on which the paschal lamb was eaten and the 



108 DEATH OF THE FIRST-BORN THREATENED. 

first-born of Egypt were slain. The narrative becomes now excited 
and abrupt as the great crisis approaches. 



VIII. THE TENTH PLAGUE. THE PASSOVER. — Ex. xi., xii. 
CHAP. XI. — DEATH OF THE FIRST-BORN THREATENED. 

XI. 1. And the Lord said unto Moses, Yet one plague 
will I bring upon Pharoh and upon Mizraim ; afterwards he 
will let you go hence: when he shall let you go altogether, 
he shall actually thrust you out hence. 2. Speak now in the 
ears of the people ; and let them ask every man of his neigh- 
bor, and every woman of her neighbor, jewels of silver and 
jewels of gold. 3. And the Lord gave the people favor in the 
eyes of Mizraim : moreover the man Moses was very great in 
the land of Mizraim in the eyes of Pharoh' s servants, and in 
the eyes of the people. 

4. And Moses said, Thus saith the Lord, About midnight 
will I come out into the midst of Mizraim. 5. And all the 
first-born in the land of Mizraim shall die, from the first-born 
of Pharoh that sitteth upon his throne unto the first-born of 
the maid-servant that is behind the mill ; and all the first-born 
of beasts. 6. And there shall be a great cry in all the land 
of Mizraim, the like of which has not been, and the like shall 
not again be. 7. And against any of the sons of Israel shall 
not a dog move his tongue, from man to beast ; that ye may 
know that the Lord doth sever between Mizraim and Israel. 
8. And all these thy servants shall come down unto me and 
bow down to me, saying, Go out, thou and all the people that 
follow thee ; and after that I will go out. And he went out 
from Pharoh in great wrath. § 11. 

9. So the Lord said unto Moses, Pharoh shall not hearken 



EXODUS XL 1-3. 109 

unto you, that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of 
Mizraim. 10. And Moses and Aaron did all these wonders 
before Pharoh: and the Lord hardened Pharoh's heart, and 
he did not let the sons of Israel go out of his land. § 12. 

The section now before us recounts the tenth and last stroke in- 
flicted on Pharoh and his people, and, in essential connection therewith, 
the institution of the Passover. In the eleventh chapter the announce- 
ment of the slaying of the first-born is made, as the last words of Moses 
to Pharoh. 

1-3. There was in the words of Moses at the close of the last chap- 
ter a foreboding of something not explicitly stated. This is a plain 
indication that another line of events was going on concurrently with 
that which the historian was engaged in narrating. While the long 
train of interviews and transactions with Pharoh has been passing, we 
are not to suppose that the communication of Moses with his own kin- 
dred and people, opened on his return from Midian (iv. 29-31, vi. 
1-9), was entirely suspended. On the other hand we are to presume 
that the whole of the instructions given to Moses (iii. 6-22), together 
with the signs of his divine authority (iv. 1—9), were in due time, and 
with full explanations, laid before the people ; that when the first bar- 
barities of Pharoh were relaxed, these messages from heaven received 
a respectful hearing, and that when the hand of the Lord was repeat- 
edly displayed in inflicting chastisements on the Egyptians, from which 
they themselves were exempted, they began gradually to take courage, 
to trust in the Lord, and make the necessary preparations for their 
departure. Indications of this concurrent process and result now begin 
to appear in the narrative. We have only to call to mind the law of 
Hebrew narrative, that when one line of events is brought to a suitable 
resting-place, the author is at liberty to go back and take up another 
line which is necessary to the full elucidation of his theme. The words 
of final parting between Moses and Pharoh, though not perhaps the 
absolute close of the conversation between them, form a striking pause, 
whether we regard them from a logical or a rhetorical point of view. 
Accordingly, in the paragraph now before us, we revert to a point of 
time before the interview with Pharoh just recorded, and after the 



HO DEATH OF THE FIRST-BORN THREATENED. 

plague of darkness. This we infer from the intimation in the last 
words of Moses of something that was in his memory more than what is 
expressed. This allusion could only be to the communication recorded 
in the present paragraph ; which is therefore now introduced to ex- 
plain what was hinted at in the words of Moses already given, and in 
the remaining part of his last address to Pharoh (vs. 4-8). 

1. Yet one plague. This places the coming judgment in the same 
class with the nine that had preceded it, though it differs from them 
in the mode of its infliction, and transcends them all in the wound it 
gave to the heart of the nation. Altogether, men, women, and children, 
with all their cattle and moveable property, so far as it was convenient 
or necessary for them to remove it. Actually thrust you out, not merely 
permit, but constrain you to depart. 2. In the ears of the people. We 
are evidently got into a new line of narrative. This is part of the in- 
tercourse of Moses with the people. And let them ask (iii. 21, 22). 
It is now plain that asking, not borrowing, is here intended, seeing 
that this step is to be taken when Pharoh was on the point of driving 
them out of the country, never to return. There could be no pre- 
tence of a return being made in such circumstances. Pharoh indeed 
repented of this course, and returned, as he was wont, to his old policy. 
But this does not alter the character of his present procedure. 3. 
TJie Lord gave the people favor. The people of Egypt saw the past 
scenes of tyranny, obstinacy, and prevarication on the part of Pharoh, 
of suffering on the part of the Israelites and themselves, and of for- 
bearance and yet decision in the judicial proceedings of God in a very 
different light from that in which they were regarded by their sov- 
ereign. Many of them would sympathize with the persecuted serfs ; 
many would stand in awe of the reiterated strokes of the divine judg- 
ment ; and all would feel the calamities that befell the nation far more 
acutely than Pharoh. Accordingly, when the warning was given to 
bring in the cattle and servants, lest they should be destroyed by the 
hail, not a few were found with so much faith in the word of the Lord 
as to attend to it, and save their property. And on a subsequent oc- 
casion the very courtiers ventured to tender the advice to Pharoh that 
he should save his country from utter destruction by dismissing the 
chosen people. Thus, in the unsearchable wisdom of God, the same 
train of events that was hardening the heart of Pharoh, and reviving 



EXODUS XL 1-8. HI 

the faith and courage of his own people, was inclining the Egyptians 
to commiserate the suffering people, and help them to make provision 
for their journey. Moreover the man Moses. The modesty of the 
writer is plain in the unadorned simplicity of the epithet, " the man," 
not the minister of God, or the leader and deliverer of the nation, but 
"the man Moses." Was very great. After what had occurred, it 
could not be otherwise. The man who had foiled the magicians of the 
court, again and again received the submission of the sovereign, and 
proved himself to be the messenger of heaven by a succession of the 
most conspicuous miracles, could not but be very great in the eyes of 
the Egyptians. And the statement of this fact does not derogate from 
his claim to modesty, but only renders a just tribute of praise to him 
whose servant he was. We have no doubt also that the moderation, 
good temper, and unaffected patriotism with which he discharged his 
duty, commanded the respect and esteem of Pharoh's servants and 
people. We shall find that the death of the first-born created such 
alarm for their personal safety that they were ready to sacrifice any 
amount of personal property to get rid of a people whose detention 
had brought such unparalleled calamities on their country. 

4—8. We are now come up again to the point at which we had 
arrived at the close of the previous chapter, and the speech of Moses 
is continued. About midnight. This note of time points naturally, 
though it does not absolutely bind us, to the night following the clay 
on which this was spoken. We conceive, therefore, that in point of 
fact this was the fourteenth Nisan, or the day before the full moon 
immediately after the vernal equinox. At all events, there is nothing 
in the narrative to oppose, and something to favor this view. Will 1 
come out. God is said to come out when he proceeds to execute the 
purposes of his will in any part of his creation, which cannot be re- 
garded as his proper and special residence. All the jirst-born. The 
first-born is the hope and strength of the house, its representative, and 
the heir of its privileges. A double portion falls to his lot, and the 
patriarchal and sacerdotal functions originally belonged to him. To 
slay the first-born, then, is the deadliest blow the household can re- 
ceive. Of Pliaroh that sitteth on the throne. The pride of the 
haughty monarch will now be brought low. The anguish will even 
be more acute, if the wailing be not more loud, in the palace of the 



112 DEATH OF THE FIRST-BORN THREATENED. 

king than in the cottage of the serf. The maid-servant that is behind 
the mill, the hand-mill, which was invariably wrought by females, and 
generally by slaves (xii. 29). It consisted of two stones, the nether 
fixed, and the upper moveable, with a hole in the centre to admit the 
grain, and an upright wooden handle, by which it was turned. The 
lower was convex, and the upper concave, so that the meal came out 
at the edge, and was received on a cloth. The first-born of beasts. 
As the cattle of the Israelites were to have been detained, the cattle 
also of the Egyptians are to suffer. And if there be any first-born 
among the animals to which the Egyptians pay divine honors, they 
also will perish. A great cry. Such a wail could have no parallel, 
unless all the first-born of a nation were to perish again in one night. 
A dog move his tongue, put his tongue in such a form and motion as 
to snarl, growl, or bark. This is a proverbial expression, to denote 
security from even the threat of danger. Tliat ye may know. This 
is a lesson to Pharoh and his court, which is now to be repeated for 
the seventh time. Mizraim represents the world for the time being, 
and Israel the church. Come down to me from the high places of the 
court and the royal city. Bow down to me, humble themselves so far 
as to do obeisance to me. And after that I will go out. When every 
proud heart will be abased, and all opposition will be broken down, 
then will I depart. Pharoh had threatened the Lord's servant with 
death, and now the death of all the first-born of Egypt is announced 
to its monarch. In great wrath. "Words of deadly feud had passed 
between them. Pharoh had threatened Moses with death, simply be- 
cause he had demanded that the cattle of the Israelites should go with 
them. With what mingled alarm and indignation would he listen to 
this last awful menace of heaven's minister. We may infer, therefore, 
that there was high wrath on both sides at parting. 

9, 10. These two verses are a recapitulation of all that has been 
related after the introductory paragraph in the seventh chapter, espe- 
cially verse 3. This verse is the prediction ; the intervening narrative 
sets forth the details, and the two verses now before us are the logical 
conclusion or summing up of the whole. Hence we render the con- 
junctive particle at the beginning, by the word so, as is occasionally 
done in the English version. This inferential summary could not come 
in before the speech of Moses, threatening the death of the first-born, 



EXODUS XII. 113 

as this occurs at the closing interview between him and Pharoh, and 
presents the latter with the last occasion for rejecting the demands of 
the Lord. And it could not come in after the death of the first-born, 
because then Pharoh at length yielded, whereas these verses record 
his long-continued resistance. They form therefore, the methodical 
recapitulation of the opposition of Pharoh foretold by the Lord, when 
that opposition has come to its last efforts. " Pharoh shall not hearken 
unto you, that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Miz- 
raim," for the perpetual instruction of mankind in certain sublime and 
necessary principles of theological truth. And so it has accordingly 
happened. 



CHAP. XII.— THE PASSOVER. DEATH OF THE FIRST-BORN. 

2. llhh new moon, day of the new moon, month ; r. he new. rth|J 
month from t]^ moon. 

3. ti!7$ assembly; r. constitute. A definitely constituted body of 
men, varying in extent from ten heads of houses to the whole of the 
men of Israel who are entitled to vote in a regular convention of the 
people. These were most probably all the males above twenty years 
of age. Between the full assembly and that of the heads of houses 
was probably the representative convention, consisting of the princes 
of tribes, chiefs of families, elders, and officers, each of which had its 
well-known province and function. It appears, however, that the 
term " elders," was often employed to denote the whole of these 
classes (vs. 12). ^ri£ congregation; r. gather together. This denotes 
the whole community of Israel, including young and old, male and 
female. It is also used to express any body of people collected 
together, without reference to definite organization or regular appoint- 
ment. 15JD appointed time or place of meeting, appointed meeting. 
This is the term constantly used in the phrase "©fa bfik tent of 
meeting, the tent at the door of which all sacred and civil meetings 
were appointed to be held in the wilderness. 

11. nos. Aram. XH09 Wo-^a, the passover ; r. pass over. (1.) The 
lamb, on account of whose blood, sprinkled on the lintel and the posts, 
the Lord passed over the Israelites (vs. 13). (2.) The solemnity of 
15 



114 THE PASSOVER. 

which this lamb was the sacrifice (Lev. xxiii. 5). (3.) The seven days' 
festival, usually called the feast of unleavened bread, including the 
proper passover or festival of the preceding evening (Deut. xvi. 1). 
(4.) The sacrifices belonging to the feast of unleavened bread (Deut. 
xvi. 2; 2 Chron. xxxv. 1, 7). 

24. ph statute, edict, ordinance, rate. (vs. 14) npn; r. engrave. 

40. D'JTOM *Q}Z£ -raJK, who sojourned in Mizraim. So the Targum 
of Onkelos may also be rendered. But the Sept. has rjv TrapuK-qo-av eV 
yfj Alyv7rTio, which they sojourned in Egypt. Against this rendering 
are the following considerations. (1.) idx is usually followed by the 
personal pronoun after the governing word when it stands for an 
oblique case, but here it is not. (2.) nizn is generally intransitive, 
taking some preposition before the place of abiding, and here it has 
D^naraa and therefore does not admit ^ilBX . (3.) When it has a direct 
object, that object is the place of abode, which it could not be here. 
(4) sisi?3 after ni2T signifies a seat (Ezek. xxviii. 2), which it cannot 
do here. (5.) The cognate objective after aizr would be IW1H or nnd 
rather than niriE . For these reasons we adhere to the former ren- 
dering. 

49. JTnin doctrine, law, principle ; r. cast, hiph. teach. 

XII. 1. And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the 
land of Mizraim, saying. 2. This month shall be unto you 
the chief of months : it shall be first to you of the months 
of the year. 3. Speak ye unto all the assembly of Israel, 
saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them 
every man a lamb, according to father's houses, a lamb for the 
house. 4. And if the house be too little for the lamb, let him 
and his neighbor next unto his house take it, according to the 
number of souls ; every man according to his eating ye shall 
count for the lamb. 5. Your lamb shall be without blemish, 
a male of the first year ; from the sheep or from the goats ye 
shall take it. 6. And ye shall keep it until the fourteenth 
day of this month ; and the whole congregation of the assem- 
bly of Israel shall kill it between the evenings. 7. And they 



EXODUS XII. 115 

shall take of the blood, and put it on the two posts and on the 
lintel, upon the houses in which they shall eat it. 8. And 
they shall eat the flesh on this night ; roast with lire and with 
unleavened bread, on bitter herbs shall ye eat it. 9. Ye shall 
not eat of it raw, or sodden at all with water ; but roast with 
fire, its head with its legs and its inwards. 10. And ye shall 
not leave of it until the morning, and that which is left of 
it until the morning ye shall burn with fire. 11. And thus 
shall ye eat of it, with your loins girded, your shoes on your 
feet, and your staff in your hand : and ye shall eat it in haste, 
it is the Lord's passover. 

12. And I will pass through the land of Mizraim this night, 
and will smite all the first-born in the land of Mizraim, from 
man to beast, and on all the gods of Mizraim I will execute 
judgments ; I am the Lord. 13. And the blood shall be to 
you for a token upon the houses where ye are ; and I will look 
upon the blood and pass over you : and there shall be no 
stroke of destruction on you when I smite the land of Miz- 
raim. 14. And this day shall be unto you for a memorial, 
and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord ; in your generations 
ye shall keep it as an ordinance for ever. 

15. Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread ; even the 
first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses : for 
whosoever eateth leavened bread, that soul shall be cut off 
from Israel from the first day until the seventh day. 16. And 
in the first day shall be a holy convocation, and in the seventh 
day a holy convocation to you : no work shall be done in 
them : only that which every soul must eat, that alone may be 
done of you. 17. And ye shall observe the feast of unleavened 
bread ; for in this self-same day I shall have brought your 
hosts out of the land of Mizraim : and ye shall observe this 
day in your generations as an ordinance for ever. 18. In the 



116 THE PASSOVER. 

first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at even, ye 
shall eat unleavened bread, until the one-and-twentieth day of 
the month at even. 19. Seven days leaven shall not be found 
in your houses ; for whosoever eateth that which is leavened, 
that soul shall be cut off from the assembly of Israel, whether 
he be a stranger or born in the land. 20. Nothing leavened 
shall ye eat ; in all your dwellings ye shall eat unleavened 
bread. *fi 16. 

21. Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said 
unto them, Draw out and take you a lamb according to your 
families, and kill the passover. 22. And ye shall take a 
bunch of hyssop and dip in the blood which is in the bason, 
and strike the lintel and the two posts with the blood that is 
in the bason : and none of you shall come out from the door 
of his house until the morning. 23. And the Lord will pass 
through to smite Mizraim, and shall see the blood upon the 
lintel, and on the two posts : and the Lord will pass over the 
door, and will not suffer the destroyer to go into your houses to 
smite you. 24. And ye shall observe this thing, for an ordi- 
nance to thee and to thy sons for ever. 25. And it shall come 
to pass, when you go into the land which the Lord will give 
you as he hath spoken, that ye shall keep this service. 26. 
And it shall come to pass when your sons shall say unto you, 
What mean ye by this service ? 27. Then ye shall say, It is 
the sacrifice of the Lord's passover, who passed over the 
houses of the sons of Israel in Mizraim, when He smote Miz- 
raim and delivered our houses. And the people bent the head 
and worshipped. 28. And the sons of Israel went and did so ; 
as the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they. § 13. 

29. And it came to pass at midnight that the Lord smote 
all the first-born in the land of Mizraim, from the first-born of 
Pharoh that sat on the throne unto the first-born of the captive 



EXODUS XH. 117 

fhat was in the dungeon, and all the first-born of cattle. 30. 
And Pharoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants and 
all Mizraini ; and there was a .great cry in Mizraim ; for there 
was not a house where there was not one dead. 31. And he 
called for Moses and Aaron by night and said, Rise up, go 
forth from among my people, both ye and the sons of Israel : 
and go, serve the Lord, as ye have spoken. 32. Take your 
flocks also and your herds, as ye have spoken, and go ; and 
bless me also. 33. And Mizraim urged the people to send 
them out of the land in haste ; for they said, We shall be all 
dead. 34. And the people took up their dough before it was 
leavened, their kneading-troughs being bound up in their gar- 
ments upon their shoulders. 35. And the sons of Israel did 
according to the word of Moses ; and they asked of Mizraim 
jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and garments. 36. And 
the Lord gave the people favor in the eyes of Mizraim and 
they gave them ; and they spoiled Mizraim. ^f 17. 

37. And the sons of Israel journeyed from Eameses to Suk- 
koth about six hundred thousand foot, the men apart from the 
little ones. 38. And a mixed multitude also went up with 
them, and flocks and herds, even very much cattle. 39. And 
they baked the dough which they brought out of Mizraim into 
unleavened cakes, for it was not leavened : because they were 
thrust out of Mizraim and could not tarry, and they had not 
made for themselves any provision. 40. And the sojourning 
of the sons of Israel, who sojourned in Mizraim, was thirty 
and four hundred years. 41. And it was after the end of 
thirty and four hundred years, and it was on the self-same day 
that all the hosts of the Lord came out from the land of Miz- 
raim. 42. It is a night of observance unto the Lord for 
bringing them out from the land of Mizraim ; such is this 
night of the Lord to be observed by all the sons of Israel in 
their generations. 1[ 18. 



118 THE PASSOVER INSTITUTED. 

43. And the Lord said unto Moses and Aaron, This is the 
ordinance of the passover, no alien shall eat thereof. 44. 
And every man's servant that is bought with money, when 
thou hast circumcised him, then shall he eat thereof. 45. A 
sojourner and a hireling shall not eat thereof. 46. In one 
house shall it be eaten : thou shalt not bring aught of the 
flesh out of the house abroad, and a bone thereof ye shall not 
break. 47. All the assembly of Israel shall keep it. 48. 
And when a stranger sojourneth with thee and will keep the 
passover to the Lord, let all his males be circumcised, and 
then let him come near to keep it, and he shall be as one born 
in the land : and no uncircumcised person shall eat thereof. 
49. One law shall be to the home-born and to the stranger that 
sojourneth among you. 50. Thus did all the sons of Israel : 
as the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they. § 14. 

51 And it came to pass in the self-same day that the Lord 
brought the sons of Israel out of the land of Mizraim by their 
hosts. ^ 19. 

This chapter contains the divine order for the institution of the 
passover, the directions given by Moses to the people and their com- 
pliance with them, the death of the first-born in Egypt, and the dis- 
missal of the enslaved people, the date of their departure, and the 
determination of the parties who are admissible to the passover. 

1-20. The divine ordinance concerning the passover. The parting 
interview between Moses and Pharoh may have taken place on the 
14th Nisan. In the present chapter a new line of events is taken up. 
It belongs to the intercourse, not of Moses and Pharoh, but of Moses 
and the people. We therefore go back to the beginning of Nisan, which 
we have supposed to be about the 8th of March at the earliest. At 
this time it may be presumed the plague of hail had been removed, 
and those of the locusts and the darkness had yet to come on. 

1. In the land of Mizraim. This note of place would have been 
unnecessary if the writer had not passed from Egypt into the wilder- 



EXODUS xn. 1-3. 119 

ness since the preceding chapter was indited. It is, therefore, an 
intimation that this portion of the narrative was not committed to 
writing till after the exodus had taken place. It thus affords an 
incidental presumption that the narrative was composed by an eye- 
witness. This month. The term here employed denotes the new 
moon, and hence the day of the new moon, or first day of the month, 
and lastly the month as denned in its commencement by the new 
moon. It appears to denote here the beginning of the month. The 
chief of months ; the most important among the months on account of 
the great event which was about to take place in it. It shall be first. 
Israel was henceforth to have a sacred year beginning with tins 
month, which was the seventh of the old civil or common year (see 
on Gen. ii. 6, vii. 11). From this accordingly the months are hence- 
forth counted, so that the old first month becomes the seventh of the 
sacred year, though its first day is still distinguished as a festival by 
the blowing of trumpets and certain special sacrifices (Lev. xxiii. 23- 
25; Num. xxix. 1-6). 

3. All the assembly. Three words are with more or less constancy 
rendered congregation in our English version, ?TO, bnj?, and ISJa. 
"We shall, by way of distinction, translate them respectively by the 
words assembly, congregation, and meeting, which are already used 
without exact discrimination in our present version. By assembly or 
convention we understand a body of men organized for common coun- 
sel or action. By congregation or community we understand a more 
general bodv or gathering of men. women, and children, having 
common privileges, civil and sacred, but not all called upon or entitled 
to vote or act in public affairs. In the former term, regular organ- 
ization is the prominent characteristic : in the latter the custom of 
assembling together. The commonwealth of Israel mav be designated 
by either, according to the different way in which it may be view til. 
It is obviously regarded in our text as a unity, having its natural 
centre in Jacob and its spiritual centre in Israel, and in him of whom 
Israel was the type. By meeting or appointment is to be understood 
a stated meeting or gathering for a great solemn occasion (xxxix. 42, 
43). In the tenth day of this month. From the third to the tenth of 
Xisan the plague of locusts ran its course. The days intervening 
between the tenth and the fourteenth were probably the days of 



120 THE PASSOVER INSTITUTED. 

darkness. This was perhaps the proximate reason for choosing the 
lamb on the tenth. At the same time ten is the symbol of complete- 
ness ; and the tenth day completes the third of the month, as the 
night of (that is, before) the fifteenth completes the half of the month. 
The day of atonement was in like manner on the tenth day of the 
seventh month (Lev. xxiii. 27). Every man a lamb, a young animal 
of the sheep or of the goats (vs. 5 ; 2 Chron. xxxv. 7), though in latter 
times it came to be invariably the young of a sheep, According to 
father's houses, or smaller families. The family organization was very 
exact among the Israelites. Under the twelve tribes were the clans 
or families (ninsua) ; under these the father's houses (tYQK ma) or 
smaller families, and under these the several distinct households of 
which they consisted. A lamb for the house. This is the single house- 
hold, which forms the social unit in the subdivisions of Israel. 4. 
And if the house he too little for the lamb. The Jewish tradition was 
that a man ate the size of an olive of the paschal lamb, in which case 
a whole lamb would be sufficient for a very large household. In the 
Targum Jonathan, ten is given as the least number for a paschal com- 
pany. Josephus assigns ten as the least number and twenty as not 
uncommon (Wars of the Jews, vi. 9, 3). The Mishna says, " A 
paschal sacrifice may not be slaughtered for a single individual only. 
It may not be slaughtered even for a party of a hundred individuals, 
if each of them cannot eat thereof the minimum quantity of the size 
of an olive." This implies that a hundred might partake of the one 
lamb. At the last supper of our Lord and his disciples, thirteen full- 
grown men were present. This would give an average of about 
twenty persons, if women and children were included. 

5. Without blemish. The lamb is the substitute, at least in type, 
of the first-born, and is therefore to be perfect of its kind. A male 
of the first year. The male ranks before the female, and is therefore 
employed to figure a sufficient sacrifice. The phrase " son of a year," 
means of any age from a month to a full year (Gen. vii. 6, 11). 

Until the fourteenth day. If, as we presume, the three days of 
darkness came between the tenth and the fourteenth, though the 
Israelites had light, as in ordinary days, it was desirable that the lamb 
should be set apart on the tenth day, that there might be nothing to 
do on the fourteenth day but prepare it for sacrifice. During those 



EXODUS XII. 5-7. 121 

awful days, when darkness, the symbol of chaos, brooded over Egypt, 
the Israelites had the lamb as the sign and pledge of the divine 
promise that this darkness would spread no farther, but would at 
length give way to a new period of light and life and hope. And 
doubtless they would have occasion, on contemplating this devoted 
victim, to converse with one another concerning the great deliverance 
which was before them (see Fagius in Crit. Sac). But instruction 
and edification were not limited to those three days. They pervade 
all time, but especially those great occasions on which God manifests 
his power in the works of justice and mercy. Hence every event in 
this great deliverance has its definite lesson to all parties concerned, 
if they will but learn it. The whole congregation of the assembly of 
Israel. A congregation is any gathering or number of people that 
may be gathered. The congregation of an assembly is the company 
of those who belong to an organized or orderly community, having a 
common head, a representative assembly, and a law of action. The 
word Israel defines the nation, and the word all embraces every 
member of it. Not to partake of the passover on this occasion was 
to be excommunicated, unless there was some invincible hinderance. 
The whole congregation are here priests unto God. Shall kill it, as a 
typical substitute for the first-born, a symbol of propitiation by the 
death of another. Betiveen the evenings. The lamb seems to have 
been slain before sunset and eaten after (see on Gen. i. 4). 

7. Put it on the two posts and on the lintel. By the door the 
destroyer enters to slay the first-born. Hence the blood that indicates 
faith and represents atonement is sprinkled on the fixed boundaries 
of the doorway, except the threshold, on which the foot treads. It is 
not sprinkled on the door-leaf itself, which may have been in many 
cases altogether wanting, and was always less permanent than the 
lintel and posts in the booths and other slight habitations of a pas- 
toral people (vs. 8, 9). And they shall eat. As the sacrificing of the 
paschal lamb is a symbol of the redemption, by which the death- 
penalty due by one is paid by another, so the eating of it is a figure of 
the participation of pardon, acceptance, and full blessedness consequent 
upon the atonement being made and the law being satisfied. Roast 
with fire ; not raw, that is, unfit for use, and therefore for representing 
spiritual enjoyment ; nor sodden with water, deprived of any portion 
16 



122 THE PASSOVER INSTITUTED. 

of its savor, and thus not so well adapted to express complete hap- 
piness ; but roast with fire, submitted to the direct influence of fire, 
retaining the integrity of its strength and flavor, consequently shad- 
owing forth not only the completeness of the sacrifice, but also the 
perfection of the salvation thereby obtained. Unleavened bread. 
Bread is the staff of life (Lev. xxvi. 26). Leaven is a mass of sour 
dough in which decomposition has set in, and is therefore the symbol 
of corruption (1 Cor. v. 8). Hence unleavened bread is the emblem 
of purity and life. On bitter herbs. These appear to form the basis 
of the repast, on which the other materials rest. In the Mishna five 
different kinds of bitter herbs are mentioned, among which are lettuce 
and endive. The bitter herbs convey no obscure allusion to the 
bitterness of Egyptian bondage, and of the bondage of sin in general. 
Its head, with its legs and its inwards. It is plain that it was to be 
roasted whole, without breaking or severing any of the bones. This 
involved the necessity of its being roasted on a spit before the fire, as 
the people could not be generally provided with vessels large enough 
to contain it whole. And it was strikingly expressive of the unity 
of the sacrifice — of the salvation which it prefigured, and of the 
people who partook of it (Ps. xxxiv. 20 ; 1 Cor. v. 7, x. 17). 

10. Ye shall not leave of it until the morning. It was, if possible 
to be entirely consumed. But if any portion was left, it was to be 
burnt with fire. This was the rule for all sacrificial meals, except 
the vow or voluntary offering (Lev. vii. 15-17). This seems to indi- 
cate that they were sacred to the one purpose, and therefore not to be 
applied to any profane or further use. The atonement and the salva- 
tion following are to be all-sufficient, yet not more than sufficient. 
And thus shall ye eat it, with your loins girded, as those who are 
equipped for expeditious travelling ; your shoes on your feet, as those 
who are prepared for rough and untrodden paths ; your staff in your 
hand, as a protection and a support on the journey ; in haste, as those 
who do not know the moment when they must set out. Here we 
have a reality which is a true type of the readiness with which the 
redeemed should wait for other and higher journeys than that which 
was now before the Israelites. It is the Lord's passover. The festival 
now described is a feast of passing over in sparing mercy, instituted 
by the Lord himself, and to be observed by all his people in obedience 



exodus xn. 10. 123 

to his word. As is usual with the first observance of any institution, 
there are many incidental circumstances that do not occur in the 
subsequent observance of it. The essential parts of this solemnity 
are the lamb, the time of sacrificing and eating it, the unleavened 
bread and bitter herbs, the seven clays' feast of unleavened bread. 
The keeping up from the tenth day was afterwards omitted ; the 
domestic observance by the men, women, and children was succeeded 
by the celebration at the place which the Lord had chosen (Deut. xvi. 
6) by the men only or chiefly ; the lamb was slain by the house father 
or the priest ; the blood was sprinkled, not on the lintel and posts of 
the house, but apparently on the altar (2 Chron. xxx. 16, xxxv. 11) ; 
and the attire and attitude of haste and readiness for travelling were 
afterwards omitted. * 

(1.) Of the three things essential to the salvation of a fallen creature, 
two are represented by circumcision and the passover — regeneration 
and redemption. (2.) Circumcision denotes the new birth, without 
indicating any of its fruits. The passover, like all sacrificial feasts, 
points out not only the act, but the effect of redemption. The slaying 
of the lamb is the act, being the giving up of the life of one for 
another ; the eating of the sacrifice is the effect, being the reception o£ 
the rights and enjoyments recovered on its death. (3.) Circumcision, 
signifying that which is inward, applies to each individual apart, and 
is therefore a solitary ordinance ; the passover, standing for that 
which is outward, is equally adapted to all who are circumcised, and 
is therefore a social ordinance, exhibiting the communion of saints. 
Hence the former began suitably with Abraham, when he was alone, 
before he became the father of the faithful ; the latter appropriately 
with Israel, after he had become a nation. (4.) In circumcision, which 
shadows forth the new birth, the recipient is passive ; in the passover, 
which implies the voluntary partaking of the sacrifice, the recipient 
is active. (5.) Circumcision, symbolizing the new birth, is not to be 
repeated ; the passover, as a sacrifice, represents that sacrifice which 
is to be offered once for all, but as a feast, it sets forth the constant 
fare by which the soul is sustained, and is therefore repeated from 
year to year. (6.) Circumcision, the symbol of the new nature, was 
not preceded by any other sign of like import. The passover, being a 
kind of sacrifice, was preceded by the sacrifices of Habel, Noah, 



124 THE PASSOVER INSTITUTED. 

Abraham, and other patriarchs, all prefiguring that great redeeming 
sacrifice which was to be offered in the fulness of time. (7.) Circum- 
cision was to continue as long as the visible church was limited to 
the natural or adopted descendants of Israel ; the passover was to be 
observed until the true Lamb of God should come, of which it was 
only the type. (8.) Regeneration and redemption are necessary to the 
salvation of man from the date of the fall to that of the resurrection, 
and therefore belonged to the experience of the saints before these 
symbols were instituted. We have seen that the symbol of redemp- 
tion varied according to the varying aspects which its historical 
progress presented. The passover answers to a new phase of redemp- 
tion not within the experience of the patriarchs. This leads us to 
expect that other symbols may be substituted for those of the law of 
Moses, when the realities for which they stand reach a new stage of 
development. (9.) The event which gave occasion to the institution 
of the passover was a temporal redemption, and therefore itself but a 
type and foretaste of that eternal redemption which transcends all its 
temporal forms as far as the bondage of inward guilt transcends that 
of outward force. This brings before us the vast import and grandeur 
of the present turning-point in the history of God's people, in regard 
not only to what it is in itself, but to what it prefigures in the history 
of salvation. (10.) The passover is an advance on all preceding sacri- 
fices ; as it signalizes the eating of the sacrifice, and therefore the 
eDJoyment of the benefits of redemption, the rest, the land of rest, the 
better land ; it is a periodical festival, and thereby represents the 
perpetuity of the heavenly sustenance ; and it is commemorative of a 
great typical deliverance. 

12-15. The immediate benefit realized by those who keep this ordi- 
nance. I will pass through. The Lord himself, without the interven- 
tion of Moses and Aaron, is to execute this awful judgment. This 
night. The night after the 14th of Nisan, the previous transactions 
of which have just been described. All the first-born, from man to 
beast. The first-born is the beginning and the hope of the family 
(Gen. xlix. 3). To smite the first-born is to begin the annihilation of 
the race. The cattle came also under this judgment. All the gods of 
Mizraim. The bull, the goat, the ram, and other animals were deified 
by the Egyptians. The king was also regarded as an impersonation 



exodus xn. 12-20. 125 

of the sun-god. The extinction of all these creature gods will be 
menaced, as well as in part executed, by the death of their first-born. 
/ am the Lord, the maker, and therefore the absolute disposer, of all 
things; who speaks, and it is done. The Lord is emphatically the 
performer, who gives effect to his word, whether of threatening or of 
promise. The blood shall be to you for a token, a token of redemption, 
of acceptance, and safety. And 'pass over you. Here is the origin of 
the term passover. I will pass over you, for whom another has, by a 
type, shed his blood, and who are therefore freed from the penalty of 
the law. For a memorial. At this time every year you will commem- 
orate with thankfulness your present and perpetual deliverance. Keep 
it a feast, a day of rejoicing and thanksgiving for freedom and pros- 
perity, to be celebrated according to the general rules laid down by 
the Lord. An ordinance forever, a perpetual ordinance, lasting in its 
form as long as Israel is the peculiar people ; in its principle as long 
as the state of redemption which it celebrates, and therefore absolutely 
for ever. 

15-20. The institution of the feast of unleavened bread. Seven 
days; a sacred number of days, in token of entire and perpetual con- 
secration to God. Eat unleavened bread (vs. 8). Unleavened bread is 
the symbol of a holy fare. To eat unleavened bread is the symbol of 
a holy life, becoming those who have exercised faith in God, the blessed 
fruit of a new nature. After redemption accepted comes obedience 
rendered. Even the first day of the seven. As this day commenced 
at the sunset of the 14th of Nisan, the removal of the leaven must 
have been effected on that day. Put away leaven out of your houses. 
This denotes the avoidance of all contact with sin, and of all tempta- 
tion to it. That soid shall be cut off from Israel. This is excommu- 
nication or exclusion from the visible community of God's people. It 
involved the loss of all the privileges of the chosen people. It was in 
certain cases accompanied with the penalty of death, but not in others. 
We cannot suppose that an uncircumcised infant was on that account 
to be put to death, as the fault was in the parent (Gen. xvii. 14). It 
is a type of eternal separation from the family of heaven. From the 
first day until the seventh day. This is placed last to intimate that the 
excommunication is to take place whenever the offence has been once 
committed during these seven days, and not to be delayed till the 
expiration of the festival. 



126 THE PASSOVER INSTITUTED. 

16. In the first day, the 15th of Nisan. A holy convocation. The 
convocation of holiness (ttKp'anpE) was an assembly for religious 
purposes, in which the people of a neighborhood worshipped God by 
praise and prayer, and it may be, even from an early period, heard 
portions of the written word read and expounded, and applied to the 
regulation of life. This convocation was the origin of the synagogue, 
a term which originally denoted the assembly, and not the place of 
assembly. They were doubtless at first held in the open air, in the 
place where it was customary for the people of the district to assemble. 
This was probably a natural green area set apart for civil and sacred 
meetings, like the fair green or square of a country town. The days 
on which holy convocations were held were Sabbaths ; no work shall 
he done in them except the works of necessity. Only that which every 
soul must eat. We learn from Lev. xxiii. and Num. xxviii., xxix., 
that the weekly Sabbaths, the first and seventh days of the feast of 
unleavened bread, the day of pentecost, the first day of the seventh 
month, the day of atonement, the first and the eighth days of the feast 
of tabernacles, were days of holy convocation. Accordingly, there 
were in the ordinary year of Israel seven days in which no work was 
done, besides the weekly Sabbaths. Yet the weekly Sabbath and the 
Sabbath of the day of atonement were distinguished by a cessation of 
all business from the other six Sabbaths, on which an abstinence from 
the business of labor only was required. (See chapters quoted.) 

17-20. This is to be a perpetual feast. In this self-same day. The 
first day of unleavened bread, for it is the day of their deliverance. / 
shall have brought your hosts. The men above twenty years of age 
will march in battle array out of the land (xiii. 18). An ordinance 
for ever. See vs. 14, 18-20. The time of eating unleavened bread 
is here more precisely defined. The prohibition is expressed also with 
more detail. A stranger. The strangers were afterwards distinguished 
into two classes : proselytes of righteousness (p^Sti ^a), who were 
circumcised, and so fully incorporated into the theocratic state, and 
entitled to all its privileges; and proselytes of the gate ("iStEfi ^f 1 )? wno 
were not circumcised, but acknowledged the one true and living God 
in common with Israel, and confessed themselves bound to observe 
what were called the seven laws of Noah, that were binding on all 
men. These prohibited blasphemy, idolatry, murder, incest, plunder, 



EXODUS XII. 17-23. 127 

disobedience to the state, and the eating of flesh cut from a living 
beast. All these, with the exception of the interdiction of incest, and 
perhaps plunder, may be fairly deduced from Gen. ix. 1-7, in conjunc- 
tion with the preceding portion of the written word ; in other words, 
from the second Bible of mankind, which terminates with the ninth 
chapter of Genesis, or with Gen. xi. 9. This is no dark intimation 
that the Jews, even of a late period (Talmud, from 200 to 500 a.c), 
remembered and recognized the Noachic or general covenant with 
mankind as still co-existing with the Abrahamic or special covenant 
with Israel. On no other ground can we explain the admission of 
proselytes of the gate to any standing in the community of Israel, or 
the remarkable reference to the laws of Noah. These strangers of 
the gate were so called because they were admitted into the gate of the 
private or domestic court, though they did not form a part of the 
proper family, and in the temple were admitted into the court of Gen- 
tiles, but not into those that were accessible to the peculiar people. 
They also enjoyed the privileges of the cities of refuge (Num. xxxv. 
15), and certain other advantages incidental to their intermingling with 
the people of God (Lev. xxv. 35-55) ; but they were excluded from, 
the passover and the other sealing ordinances of the Abrahamic cove- 
nant. Born in the land. A descendant of Israel, or of one incorpo- 
rated into Israel by circumcision, and so a native and an heir of the 
promised land. In your dwellings. The obligation to abstain from 
leaven is to extend to those who remain at home, as well as to those 
who resort to the sanctuary for the observance of the passover. 

In this passage we have the institution of the feast of unleavened 
bread, which was the continuation of the passover meal, and was to be 
celebrated after the departure from Egypt. And Ave perceive that the 
sacred writer is more intent on the record of this institution than on 
the detail of the exodus itself. 

21-28. Moses communicates to the people the message he had 
received from the Lord. The record of this communication is given 
in brief terms. Called for the elders of Israel (Gen. iii. 16). These 
were the official organs of the people, through whom it was easy for 
Moses to communicate with the whole of Israel. This message was 
delivered to them in the beginning of the month, and certainly some 
days before the tenth. Draw out. Separate from the flock, not 



128 THE PASSOVER INSTITUTED. 

depart (d7reA.^oVres), as the Sept. freely renders. A lamb. The orig- 
inal is "one of the flock" (1^25), which, according to the previous de- 
scription (vs. 5), here means a lamb or a kid. And kill the passover. 
This is evidently a summary of the directions given by Moses. 22. 
A bunch of hyssop. Here the direction supplies what is wanting in 
the previous record. The hyssop is apparently a generic term inclu- 
ding several species. The species here intended is generally supposed 
to be, not the hyssopus officinalis, but according to Maimonicles and 
others, a plant called Sahtar by the Arabs, a kind of organy, an aro- 
matic plant one foot high, growing on stony soil (1 Kings v. 13). 
A bunch according to tradition consists of three stalks. And none of 
you shall come out from the door, from the blood-besprinkled door, 
within which is safety. The destroyer. The destructive power, agent, 
or instrument is hereby denoted. The intervention of angels is not 
necessarily implied. " The destroyer " (6 oXoOpcvwv), of the Epistle to 
the Hebrews (xi. 28), seems to be the Lord himself, or the Angel of 
the Lord. 

24-27. The perpetual observance of this ordinance, which was 
enjoined in vs. 14, is here prescribed with great minuteness. This 
service. The ordinance is here designated a service, inasmuch as it 
was an act of obedience to the Divine Master whose servants they 
had become. What mean ye ? This ordinance of God is a reasonable 
service, and therefore the children have a right to ask, and the 
parents are bound to give, a reason for its observance. It is the 
sacrifice of the Lord's passover. Here the sacrificial nature of the 
passover is expressly asserted. 

28. The prompt obedience of the people, who were represented by 
their elders in the presence of Moses, and were informed of their duty 
through these officials, is here emphatically recorded. This brief 
statement brings up another thread of the narrative to the point of 
time when the last plague is to be executed. The selection of the 
'lamb, the keeping of it from the tenth till the fourteenth day, during 
which interval we have supposed the three days of darkness to have 
occured, the slaying of the paschal lamb between the evenings, and 
the partaking of it in the prescribed form, have now been all accom- 
plished. 

29-36. We have now the narrative of the death of the first-born 



EXODUS XII. 2S-36. 129 

and the urgent dismissal of Israel. At midnight. This refers to the 
point when the half of the night is past, and therefore to the darkest 
period in the whole twenty-four hours. The Lord smote. This awful 
stroke came from the immediate hand of God. Its miraculous nature 
appears in the prediction of the time and other circumstances of its 
infliction, in the instantaneous mode of its occurrence, in the selection 
of the Egyptians alone as its object, and in the further selection of the 
first-born alone of man and beast. It appears that among men the 
first-born only that remained unmarried in the house of their parents 
are here to be understood. The first-born of Pharoh is slain, while 
he himself is spared, though probably a first-born. It is said that "there 
was not a house where there was not one dead"; but there might 
have been grandparents and parents as well as a first-born child 
deceased in one house, if other than the unmarried first-born had been 
contemplated in the threatened judgment. And Pharoh rose up in 
the night. The peril was too imminent to admit of delay. The cry of 
intense anguish arose from every home. The awful feeling that all 
might in another moment, at all events by another judgment, be 
struck down, awoke in every breast. And he called for Moses and 
Aaron by night. His indignant resolve to see Moses no more is soon 
forgotten. The meeting, moreover, could hardly be called an inter- 
view, as it was a hurried cry in the dark, imploring them to arise and 
go forth from among his people, with all the sons of Israel, urging 
them to take their flocks and herds, and go, and beseeching them to 
bless him also before they depart. By blessing him he meant releas- 
ing him from the menace of any other awful judgment, such as those 
that had already befallen him through their intervention. It is plain 
that he makes no condition with them as to returning after a limited 
time to his service. He is most anxious to propitiate Moses and the 
God of Moses by granting precisely and fully all that had been 
demanded. And hence he says, "And serve the Lord, as ye have 
spoken " ; " take your flocks and your herds, as ye have spoken." It is 
now a case of life and death with him. TVhat need of insisting on a 
return, if we are to be all dead men ? And Mizraim urged the people. 
Their first-born were ail dead. The stroke had at length reached 
their persons, and had laid low the very dearest of every household. 
No wonder they expected to be all dead men. 
17 



130 DEATH OF THE EIRST-BORN. 

34-36. Took their dough before it was leavened. Here we see the 
coincidence of historical fact with the institution of the festival of 
unleavened bread. This bread was commemorative, as well as symbol- 
ical. We are not to infer that it was the design of the people on this 
occasion to leaven their dough, but that this was the routine that was 
wont to be pursued on ordinary occasions. Bound up in their gar- 
ments. The garment (<"&£&) was a square piece of cloth that was 
thrown over the rest of the dress as a shawl or mantle, and was there- 
fore suitable for wrapping up moveable articles in a journey. 35, 36. 
And they spoiled Mizraim. The transaction here recorded is an act 
of compliance with a direction given as far back as the commission 
Moses received at the burning bush (iii. 21, 22), and recalled to mind 
the day before their departure (xi. 2). The Israelites were now in 
the ascendant. They held the position of conquerors, and the Egyp- 
tians, who had long and grievously wronged them and profited by 
their unrequited labors, felt themselves to be at their mercy. The 
demands made and the gifts bestowed in such circumstances were in 
substance a spoiling of Egypt. The Israelites were now in a position 
to extort a portion of their just rights, and they used their advantage 
with great moderation. 

37-42. The departure of Israel from the land of bondage. From 
Barneses, not the town, but the tract of country so called Gen. xlvii. 
11. It is unwarranted by the text, and inconceivable in itself, that 
the men, women, and children, with their cattle and moveables, should 
have assembled at the town in order immediately to depart from it. 
It is not to be supposed that even the full-grown men started in a 
formed body from any one town, place it where we will. We have no 
concern, therefore, with the site of Rameses the town, but only of 
Rameses the province, and it suffices to know that it was the border 
land of Egypt towards Arabia. There is much probability in the 
opinion that it included the wady Tumilat, and so lay east of the Nile, 
and around the Birket Temsah, or crocodile lake, extending, however, 
considerably to the north and south of this valley. To SuTckoth. 
This site was probably some point near the western edge of the salt 
marshes or bitter lakes, that lay between the Birket Temsah, and the 
Gulf of Suez, and had a lower level than the sea. It is plain that 
this station was over the border of Rameses, and that it was the first 



EXODUS XII. 37-42. 131 

rendezvous of the people. Each family, or party, on receiving gifts 
which its Egyptian neighbors pressed upon its acceptance, turned its 
steps, with its flocks and herds and beasts of burden, towards the 
border. The females, and the males under twenty, attended to the 
flocks and herds and moveable chattels which they were able to take 
with them, and never contemplated a junction, even at Sukkoth. 
They slowly and steadily moved to the east and south along the north 
end of the bitter lakes, some down the western side, without any fear 
of the Egyptians, who were engaged in burying their first-born, or at 
least in paying them the last sad rites. The males over twenty years 
of age, by previous concert, formed themselves into marching compa- 
nies at their respective positions, faced toward Sukkoth, and gradually 
arranged themselves into tribes, and these, it may be, into camps or 
battalions, by the time they approached Sukkoth. It cannot surprise 
us that the site of Sukkoth is not to be found. It was possibly only a 
village, or a convenient place for the halting of a large body of men ; 
and such a temporary resting-place, without entrenchments, left no 
trace behind. 

About six hundred thousand foot. This is an avowed round number. 
It is below, rather than above, the actual number 603,550 (Num. ii. 32, 
iii. 39). From a calculation of the percentage of deaths up to twenty 
years of age, it appears that those above that age are to those below 
it as 12 to 5. Hence the whole number of males would be about 
850,000. This would give a sum total of males and females of about 
1,700,000. The same result follows from the number of Levites, 
from a month old and upwards, being 22,000 (Num. iii. 9), while 
those from 30 to 50 were 8,580 (Xum. iv. 48). For the number from 
20 to 30 may be taken at half of those from 30 to 50, that is 4290 ; 
and the number above 50 may be two-thirds of this, or 2860. Hence 
those above 20 would be about (8,580 + 4,290 -f- 2,860) 15,730, and 
consequently those below would be about (22.000 — 15,730) 6,270. 
These numbers are nearly in the ratio of 5 to 2. This gives 840,000 
for the males, and 1,680,000 for the whole. This sum has to receive 
a slight augmentation for the exact number and for the Levites, by 
which it reaches 1,734,540. 

The period of sojourn in Egypt was, according to our calculation, 
210 years. As the average of seven generations from Arpakshad 



132 THE DEPARTURE OF ISRAEL. 

to Nahor was 31 years, when men lived from 438 to 148 years, we 
may safely assume 30 years as a generation, and, therefore, seven 
generations in 210 years (see on Gen. i. 22-26). As Abraham had 
six sons by Keturah, and Jacob six by Leah, we may also suppose 
each parent to have four sons on an average, when the divine 
blessing of fruitfulness was promised (Gen. xxxv. 11), and actually 
bestowed in Egypt (i. 7). With 68 males for the first term, 8 for 
the number of terms, and 4 for the common ratio, the last term, or the 
number of males at the exodus, would be 1,114,112. This is con- 
siderably above the actual number, and therefore allows for a smaller 
number of generations in particular lines, as that of Moses. With a 
special promise of fruitfulness, and an exceedingly fertile soil this can- 
not be regarded as either an impossible or improbable increase. 

Apart from the little ones. The little ones here denote the young 
of both sexes. The women being not otherwise mentioned, are im- 
plied in this term. 

38, 39. A mixed multitude is literally rendered by the Sept. e7ri/xiKros 
7roXvs, a numerous mixture. It seems to denote a congeries or gather- 
ing without order, in contact with the marshalled host of 600,000 men. 
It is generally supposed to have been a rabble of non-Israelites, con- 
sisting of slaves and disaffected Egyptians, who were glad to flee the 
country, and is usually identified with the gathering (r,DSDx) of mur- 
murers or mutineers, who are distinguished from the children of Israel 
in Num. xi. 4. We do not pretend to deny that such were included. 
If the shepherd kings were at this time ruling the north of Egypt, 
we may readily grant that many of the natives would be dissatisfied 
with their civil condition. But it is possible that the multitude here 
described comprised the whole of those who did not form a part of the 
marshalled host, and therefore included the women and youth of the 
nation, who w r ith the slaves, if there were any such, were employed 
in looking after the cattle in the various ranges of country where they 
were feeding. Hence it is added, that flocks and herds, even very 
much cattle, went up with them. At all events, it is plain on the face 
of the narrative, that the young people and the women were apart 
from the regular host, and in charge of the cattle. And it is probable 
that a portion of the full-grown men, those most advanced in years, 
were also associated with them in their wandering course. They 



EXODUS XII. 38-39. 133 

baked the dough (see on vs. 34). This was generally the work of 
women ; but we know that the Bedawi in the desert, when on an 
expedition apart from his household, can cook his own food. We find 
Abraham directing a young man to dress a calf (Gen. xviii. 7), and 
Jacob seething pottage for his own use (Gen. xxv. 29). Unleavened 
cakes, round cakes baked on a kind of pan, or even among the cinders, 
in their present haste. Any provision. The word rri2 denotes that 
which is procured by the chase, wild animals of any kind, and here 
provisions in general, especially for a journey. 

40-42. Who sojourned in Mizraim. The Sept. in the cod. Vatic, 
has here r)v irap^K-qo-av iv yfj AlyvTrrco /cat ev yfj Xai/aav, " which they 
sojourned in Egypt and in Kenaan." In the cod. Alex, it runs thus : 
" which they and their fathers sojourned in Egypt and in Kenaan." 
The Sam. has the verse thus : " and the sojourning of the sons of Israel 
and of their fathers, who (or which they) sojourned in the land of Ke- 
naan and in the land of Mizraim, etc." These variants serve to prove 
that the Hebrew text has the correct reading. For iv yrj Xavaav proves 
itself to be an addition by coming after iv yfj AlyvTrrip when it ought in 
point of time to be before it. They also serve to show the meaning 
attached to the passage by the Sam. copy and the Sept. version. They 
both reckon the four hundred and thirty years from the call of Abraham. 
But from a narrow view of the pliancy of language, they concluded 
that " the sons of Israel " could not be freely used to denote the race 
from Abraham down, and that the phrase, " who sojourned in Mizraim," 
did not admit of their having sojourned a previous part of the time in 
Kenaan. Hence their emendations, or rather explications. But the 
author evidently used the present name of the race to represent that 
race, even when the name was not in existence. And he employs the 
expression, " who (or which they) sojourned in Mizraim," now that he 
was sojourning still, but in another place, naturally enough to describe 
that sojourning previous to the exodus, of which the residence in Miz- 
raim had been the latest and by far the most significant part. Besides, 
Abraham had been in Egypt at the very beginning of their sojourning 
(Gen. xii. 10), and Joseph had been twenty-two years in that country 
before the arrival of Jacob's family. Other reasons concur to prove 
that tins is the meaning of the author. Abraham is informed that " his 
seed (1) shall be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and (2) shall 



134 THE DEPARTURE OF ISRAEL. 

serve them, and (3) they shall afflict them four hundred years " (Gen. 
xv. 13). Now Isaac was born when Abraham was a hundred years 
old, and therefore thirty years after he was called. The exodus there- 
fore was four hundred years after the birth of Isaac. But Isaac was 
sixty years old when Jacob was born, and Jacob was one hundred and 
thirty years old when he came into Egypt (Gen. xxv. 26, xlvii. 9). 
Hence the sojourn in Egypt lasted 210 [400— (60 + 130)] years. 
Again, from Ex. vi. 16-20, we learn that Moses was the grandson of 
Levi by the mother's side, and the great-grandson by the father's side. 
As Moses was eighty at the exodus, if Jokebed was born when Levi 
was one hundred years old, and therefore sixty-six years after the im- 
migration, she must have been sixty-four at the birth of Moses (66-(- 
64 -{-80 = 210). It is manifest that we cannot add two hundred and 
twenty years to this period without presuming with some expositors 
that several generations are omitted. The writer, however, plainly 
gives us all the links of the genealogical chain, and not the slightest 
hint of any omission. He is precise not only in names, but in rela- 
tionships and other circumstances. We have no more right to insert 
new and unknown links here than in the genealogies before and after 
Noah. And lastly, the Apostle Paul (Gal. in. 17), affirms that the 
law was four hundred and thirty years after the covenant with 
Abraham. Any one of these arguments is sufficient to confirm what 
we hold to be the fair interpretation of the text. On the self -same 
day, immediately after the close of the four hundred and thirty years. 
A night of observance, to be kept as a commemorative solemnity in 
honor of the Lord their Deliverer. For bringing them out. The 
occasion of its appointment is here stated. Such is this night. The 
perpetuity of this observance is expressed with solemn emphasis. 

43-50. This paragraph determines who are to partake of the pass- 
over. This it was necessary to define so soon as the nation became 
independent, and therefore at liberty to admit and exclude. No alien, 
son of a foreign land, a general term for all non-Israelites. Every 
mail's servant that is bought with his money. Such a man belongs to 
his master, and therefore to his master's nation. It is to be observed 
here that the legislator finds a kind of bondage in existence, and legis- 
lates for it. He determines that the slave is entitled to all the religious 
privileges of his master. A sojourner, an inhabitant who is not incor- 



EXODUS XH. 43-51. 135 

porated into Israel by circumcision. A hireling, a mere day -laborer, 
who is in the same relation. 46, 47. In one house. Where two fam- 
ilies are joined in order to form a large enough company for the lamb, 
they are to assemble in one house. It is not to be separated or part 
of it carried to another house, and a bone of it shall not be broken. 
This is to denote the spiritual unity of those who partake of the one 
unbroken lamb. All the assembly. They are to be all one body. As 
circumcision represents their new birth, the eating of the paschal lamb 
is to shadow forth the perpetuation of their spiritual life by faith in 
God. 48, 49. A stranger, a foreigner who resides for a longer or 
shorter time with the Israelites. Having been circumcised, his family 
is incorporated into Israel, and entitled to all the privileges of the 
chosen people. Thus the door is opened wide to all Gentiles who 
wish to partake in the blessings of the Abrahamic covenant, as circum- 
cision would in those days be considered no hardship. 50. This verse 
closes the account of the celebration of the passover in conformity with 
all the requirements of the divine command. 

51. This verse is properly separated from the preceding paragraph, 
as it is the closing summary of the narrative of the deliverance of 
Israel from the land of bondage, which here runs parallel with the 
record of the institution of the passover. 

This chapter completes the account of the ten plagues, by which 
the king of Egypt is at length constrained to let Israel go out of the 
land of bondage. He who might have overwhelmed all the might 
of Egypt by one awful stroke displays his long-suffering forbearance 
by sending two verbal messages to Pharoh, and only after a second 
contemptuous refusal, proceeding to inflict a moderate chastisement, 
to bring him to repentance. The haughty obstinacy of the king 
requires a tenfold infliction, gradually increasing in severity, before 
it can be effectually overcome. And it is only finally and for ever 
subdued by his perishing in the Red Sea. 



SECTION III.— THE EXODUS. 

IX. THE ESCAPE OF ISRAEL.— Ex. xiii.-xv. 
CHAP. XIII. — SAN CTIFICATION OF THE FIRST-BORN. 

10. how to days. The attachment of n paragogic to this plural 
transforms it into an adverb, referring to a stated or natural circle of 
days. From the other passages in which it is used (Judg. xi. 40, xxi. 
19 ; 1 Sam. i. 3, ii. 19) we are led to conclude that it denotes a year. 

12. IBB that which opens the womb. The first-born ; r. cleave, 
open, "n^ttj the casting, or young of an animal. 

16. niBBiss occurs only in this passage and Deut. vi. 8, xi. 18, 
where it denotes frontlets bound with a fillet round the head. The 
root is supposed to mean to go round. 

18. Did^n This means marshalled, in marching array, or according 
to some, having the loins girt. The root in the former case is the 
numeral drn jive, which is the basis of arrangement ; in the latter the 
noun iuah rendered the loin. The word is here rendered niix-mri ytvea 
in the Sept., girded in the Targ., and armati in the Vulgate. It 
occurs only in four passages, here and in Josh. i. 14, iv. 12; Judg. vii. 
11. In Josh. i. 14 it denotes separate from the women and children, 
and in marching order (Sept. zv&voi). In Josh. iv. 12, 13 it again 
signifies in marching order, and is distinguished from XBSiii "wfctt 
equipped for the war (Sept. SiecrKCwcr/Aej/oi, and ev^oivoi eU /xa^v). 
In Judg. vii. 11 it refers to soldiers in camp, and therefore points 
rather to arrangement than armor (Sept. tt€vty)kovtcC). It is evident 
that the Seventy only conjectured what might be the meaning of the 
word. From all the contexts in which it occurs the meaning appears 
to be in marching array, and therefore apart from the women and 
children, the question of arms being left open. 

20. Dna Sept. 'O0w/a, Etham (atiom the border of the sea, Jablon- 
sky). The derivation is uncertain. 



exodus xm. 137 

XIII. 1. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying; 2. Sanc- 
tify unto me every first-born, that openeth every womb, among 
the sons of Israel, of man and of beast : it is mine. 

3. And Moses said unto the people, Remember this day, in 
which ye came out of Mizraim, out of the house of bondage ; 
for by strength of hand the Lord brought you out thence : and 
nothing leavened shall be eaten. 4. This day come ye out in 
the month Abib. 5. And it shall be, when the Lord shall 
bring thee into the land of the Kenaanite, and the Hittite, 
and the Amorite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite, which he 
sware unto thy fathers to give thee, a land flowing with 
milk and honey, that thou shalt keep this service in this 
month. 6. Seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread ; and 
in the seventh day shall be a feast to the Lord. 7. Unleav- 
ened bread shall be eaten the seven days ; and nothing leav- 
ened shall be seen with thee, neither shall leaven be seen with 
thee in all thy border. 8. And thou shalt show thy sons in 
that day, saying, It is on account of that which the Lord did 
unto me when I came out of Mizraim. 9. And it shall be for 
a sign unto thee upon thy hand, and for a memorial between 
*hine eyes, that the law of the Lord may be in thy mouth : 
for with a strong hand hath the Lord brought thee out of Miz- 
raim. 10. And thou shalt keep this ordinance in its season 
from year to year. ^[ 20. 

11. And it shall be when the Lord bringeth thee into the 
land of the Kenaanite, as he sware unto thee and to thy 
fathers, and hath given it thee, 12. That thou shalt set apart 
all that openeth the womb unto the Lord ; and every first- 
ling that cometh of a beast which thou hast, the males shall 
be the Lord's. 13. And every firstling of an ass thou shalt 
redeem with a lamb ; and if thou wilt not redeem it, then thou 
sli alt break its neck : and every first-born of man among thy 
18 



138 SANCTIFICATION OF THE FIRST-BORN. 

sons thou shalt redeem. 14. And it shalt be, when thy son 
asketh thee in time to come, saying, What is this ? that thou 
shalt say unto him, By strength of hand the Lord brought us 
out of Mizraim, out of the house of bondage. 15. And it 
came to pass, when Pharoh would hardly let us go, that the 
Lord slew all the first-born in the land of Mizraim, from 
the first-born of man to the first-born of beast : therefore I 
sacrifice to the Lord all that openeth the womb, being males, 
and all the first-born of my sons I redeem. 16. And it 
shall be for a sign upon thy hand, and for frontlets between 
thine eyes : for by strength of hand the Lord brought us out 
of Mizraim. 16. § § § 15. 

17. And it came to pass, when Pharoh let the people go, 
that God led them not by the way of the land of the Philis- 
tines, though that was near ; for God said, Lest the people 
repent when they see war, and return to Mizraim. 18. And 
God led the people round by the way of the wilderness of the 
Red Sea : and the sons of Israel went up marshalled out of 
the land of Mizraim. 19. And Moses took the bones of 
Joseph with him : for he had straitly sworn the sons of Israel, 
saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my 
bones hence with you. 20. And they set out from Sukkoth, 
and encamped in Etham, on the edge of the wilderness. 21. 
And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud 
to lead them the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to 
give them light; to go by day and night. 22. The pillar of 
cloud did not cease by day, nor the pillar of fire by night 
before the people. IT 21. 

The record of the first step in the departure out of Egypt is neces- 
sarily involved in the narrative of the tenth plague. But though the 
people have been dismissed, they are not clear out of the country. 
The grand scene of the exodus yet remains. This is the passage 



exodus xni. 1-10. 139 

through the Red Sea. And as soon as the people are come to the 
place where the Lord first appeared to Moses, the exodus may be said 
to be complete. These events occupy the third six chapters of this 
book. They contain two subdivisions ; first, the crossing of the Red 
Sea, in three chapters, and next the journey to Horeb, occupying the 
remaining three. 

The present chapter contains the directions concerning the sancti- 
fication of the first-born, and some details concerning the manner of 
their journey. 

1-16. This paragraph relates to the sanctification of the first-born. 
And the Lord spake unto 3Ioses. As the words " in Mizraim " are no 
longer added, we may presume that this is the first communication 
given after they reached the border. Sanctify unto me, set apart as 
mine, and therefore holy. Every jirst-born that is a male (vs. 12). 
Of man and beast. As the first-born of man and beast perished 
among the Egyptians, so are they equally to be given over to the 
Lord among the Israelites. Tliat openeth every womb, the first-born 
of every mother. It is mine. All things belong to God by right of 
creation. AH Israel belonged to him by right of redemption. The 
first-born belong to him by right of passing over them when Egypt's 
first-born were destroyed. Hence the consecration of the first-born 
is clearly connected with the passover, and accordingly is prescribed 
immediately after the first step of the exodus. 

3-10. Hence Moses now proceds to enjoin upon the people the 
observance of the feast of unleavened bread, which commences with 
the passover. Remember this day. Festivals are commemorative of 
some great event in the ways of God with man. This day is the first 
day of unleavened bread, the first day of Israel's emancipation. Out 
of the house of bondage, literally of bondsmen. From a position of 
freedom and honor they had been unjustly and ungratefully reduced 
to the condition of serfs. By strength of hand, a variation of the 
phrase " by a strong hand." Nothing leavened. The distinguishing 
mark of this festival is that no leaven shall be used in food. 4. Abib 
is the month of green ears, on the fifteenth day of which was the first 
full moon after the vernal equinox. 5-7. Shall bring thee into the 
land. This festival is to be a perpetual ordinance in the land of 
promise. The five tribes here enumerated are all descended from 



140 SANCT1FICATION OF THE FIRST-BORN. 

Kenaan. The Perizzite of Gen. xv. 20 and Ex. iii. 8, is here omit- 
ted, perhaps because only Kenaanites are here to be mentioned. In 
the seventh day shall be a feast to the Lord, as well as in the first, 
which is to be understood from fuller communications. 8-10. And 
thou shalt show thy son. The duty of parental instruction in religious 
truth is here enjoined. The history of the ways of God with man is 
a precious trust, to be conveyed faithfully from father to son. A full 
knowledge of our relation to God is only to be obtained by an 
acquaintance with the main facts of his past dealing with us. Hence 
a commemorative ordinance is valuable ; but it only rises to its full 
importance when its origin and significance are clearly explained and 
well understood. The redemption out of Egypt is the present 
fulfilment of a great promise, and at the same time an earnest of a 
still greater fulfilment in the future. The present is always big with 
the future ; and this is nowhere so signally realized as in the promises 
of God, and the development of man. 9. A sign unto thee upon thy 
hand. The celebration of the passover, being thus expounded and 
observed from generation to generation, will be for a sign upon the 
hand, and a frontlet between the eyes. There is a beautiful consecra- 
tion of personal ornament in this injunction. These ornaments, being 
embellishments of the person, came often before the eye and the mind 
as pleasing objects of contemplation. Being gifts, and therefore keep- 
sakes or memorials of pure affection, they became bonds of love and 
gratitude, attaching the heart to the giver. The armlet or bracelet 
moreover, clasped the hand, the seat of power, and hinted at the lesson 
that the actions are to be bound by the law of love. The fillet or 
frontlet encircles the head, the seat of intelligence, and similarly 
intimates that the thoughts are to be regulated by the law of truth. 
The jewel on the forehead, between the eyes, from which this 
ornament is called the frontlet, being placed on the most conspicuous 
part of the person, is an emblem of frank confession, or brave glory- 
ing in a person or a principle. That the sign on the hand or between 
the eyes was not a brand, such as was put upon slaves and soldiers, 
nor a kind of tattooing, such as we still find among savage nations, is 
manifest from Deut. vi. 8, xi. 18, where they are said to be put on by 
binding, and from the phylacteries of the Jews, which were bound on 
the forehead and on the wrist of the left hand. These phylacteries 



EXODUS XIII. 3-16. 141 

or Tephillin (prayer-bands) were strips of parchment, on which were 
written, Ex. xiii. 1-10, 11-16 ; Deut. vi. 4-9, xi. 13-21. These were 
enclosed in little boxes or cases of leather attached to leather straps, 
by which they were fastened to the places where they were worn. 
This custom was not prescribed by the present passage, and can only 
be regarded as an indication of a feeble and declining piety. Here it 
is intimated that the observance of the passover, with its accompanying 
ordinances, is to serve for a sign upon our hands and a memorial 
between our eyes, and therefore to remind us of the beauty of 
holiness ; to awaken our attachment to the heavenly Friend who gave 
us this ordinance as the symbol of our redemption to freedom ; to 
bend our actions and our thoughts by true love, the law of reason and 
of heaven ; and to signalize our thankful and open glorifying in the 
Lord, and in his covenant. The sacraments of the divine appoint- 
ment, and not the phylacteries of our own invention, are to be the 
signs upon our hands and the frontlets between our eyes, telling of 
our faith in God ; our reconciliation to him ; our entrance into the 
glorious liberty of the sons of God. They are to be the ornaments 
of our spiritual beauty, and the speaking instruments of God's ever- 
lasting love to us, and of our new-born attachment to him. That the 
law of the Lord may he in thy mouth, as a subject of conversation, 
and therefore of habitual thought and observance. 10. In its season, 
its appointed time. From year to year, literally from days to days. 
But the word days here is used in a collective sense, to denote a 
definite and well-known circle of days, that is, a year. 

1 1-1 6. Moses now communicates to the people the law concerning 
the consecration of the first-born. Into the land of the Kenaanite. 
This regulation is to come into force when Israel shall reach the land 
in which he is to dwell. It is here called the land of the Kenaanite, 
as all the tribes before mentioned were descended from Kenaan. The 
eventual residence of Israel for forty years in the wilderness was 
in consequence of the unbelief and disobedience of the outcoming 
generation, and is, therefore, not here contemplated ; but, on the other 
hand, it is presumed that they are to pass immediately through the 
wilderness into the promised land. An interval of a year, however, 
was to be expected in the peninsula of Sinai, and for this period a 
special provision will be found (Num. iii). As he sware unto thee. 



142 SANCTIFICATION OF THE FIRST-BORN. 

He sware unto them when he acknowledged the oath which he sware 
unto their fathers, in which they were named (Ex. vi. 8 ; Gen. xxii. 
16, xxiv. 7). 12. Set apart, cause to pass over unto the Lord as his 
own. 13. And every firstling of an ass. The ass is here specified as 
an example of what was to be done in the case of unclean animals. It 
seems probable that the ass was at this time the only, or at all events 
the chief, beast of burden possessed by the Israelites. It is a much 
finer animal in the East than in these countries. Thou shalt redeem 
with a lamb. To redeem is to give a quittance for the ass, which is 
fixed by law to be a lamb, to be offered in sacrifice in its stead. And 
if thou wilt not redeem it. It is the Lord's, from the time that he 
smote the first-born of every domestic animal among the Egyptians, 
and not among the Israelites. As it cannot be offered in sacrifice, it 
is to be put to death. To put a brute animal to death without inflict- 
ing unnecessary pain, when occasion requires, cannot be called cruelty. 
The command of the Creator is at least one occasion on which this 
may be done, as he who gave life can withdraw it. The alternative 
of redeeming or destroying the firstling of an unclean animal is a 
temporal y arrangement, until a sacerdotal order has been set up. 
From that time forward the alternative comes to be to redeem accord- 
ing to the estimate of the priests, and add a fifth part, or surrender 
it to the priests, by whom it is sold at his estimation (Lev. xxvii. 27). 
The redemption of the first-born of man admits of no alternative 
The ransom was five shekels (Num. iii. 47). 14-16. The custom of 
redeeming the first-born, which naturally flows from the passover, 
serves, in like manner, for a sign on the hand and a frontlet between 
the eyes, as explained on vs. 9. 

17—22. A single stage, and some general features of the future march 
of Israel are here stated. God led them. One leading feature of their 
course henceforth is that they are under the guidance of the Most 
High. Antecedent to this guidance, and irrespective of all covenant 
with the guided, he is the everlasting Potentate from whom all creation 
and all providence flow, the King eternal, immortal, invisible. In this 
character he arranges the first direction given to their course, as far 
as it depends on the natural relations of things. Two ways were 
before the people, the one leading northeast, directly towards the land 
of promise ; the other nearly south, towards the Sinaitic peninsula. 



EXODUS XIII. 17-19. 143 

Before they started, it was necessary to determine which they were to 
take, that no time might be lost, and no misunderstanding might arise. 
By the way of the land of the Philistines. This way was familiar to the 
sons of Israel in former times, when Ephraim asserted a claim and 
maintained a position in the regions from Shekem to Gath (1 Chron. 
vii. 21-24), and was well known at all times by the caravans of traders 
from Damascus and Gilead (Gen. xxxvii. 25). Lest the people repent 
when they see war. This is the determining motive springing from the 
things of the natural world. It is sufficient to shape their course for 
the present, and, on the score of economy, no further influence is 
brought into operation. But other and higher motives, arising in the 
sphere of the supernatural, lie hid in the counsels of Jehovah, that is, 
of God as he is, the God of the actual and the spiritual. The natural 
reason, then, not the supernatural, is here given for directing their 
course southward. Round by the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea. 
This way was round in reference to Kenaan, the place of their desti- 
nation. The wilderness of the Red Sea is so called, in contradistinction 
to that which they would have crossed in the straight road to the land 
of Kenaan. The former is here called the wilderness of Etham. Both 
were included under the wider term Shur (Gen. xvi. 7, xxv. 18 ; Ex. 
xv. 22). Marshalled. From the usage of this word, we infer that the 
full-grown men formed a body, arranged in columns or battalions, for 
orderly march, apart from the women and children. The latter were 
not on this occasion assembled together ; but assisted, it may be, by 
small detachments of men, moved along in separate companies with 
the flocks and chattels of the nation. Meanwhile, the full-grown men 
gradually mustered, and now marched in order, arranged on the basis 
of five, and having probably captains of tens, of hundreds, of thou- 
sands, and of greater numbers. We know that ultimately they formed 
five camps, or battalions, four under the standards of Judah, Reuben, 
Ephraim, and Dan, and the fifth consisting of the Levites (Num. i., ii.), 
This body of men was thus enabled to move with precision, and afford 
an efficient protection to the scattered families that were advancing 
slowly, encumbered as they were with the cattle and the moveable 
property that were under their charge. 

19. TJie bones of Joseph. What a light this casts upon the living 
thoughts and cherished recollections of this people. About one hun- 



144 FROM SUCCOTH TO ETHAM. 

dred and forty years ago Joseph had bound their fathers by an oath 
to carry his bones with them to the land of promise (Gen. 1. 24, 25). 
This oath, and the hopes inseparably connected with it, were often 
talked over in the family gatherings of the evening, and the memory 
of it faithfully handed down from father to son. This little incident 
warrants us to imagine the frequent and earnest conferences which 
took place in the homes and social meetings of Israel concerning the 
promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ; the land to which they 
were to return when the iniquity of the Amorite was full ; the 
privileges and blessings that were in store for the seed of Abraham, 
and in that seed for all the families of the earth; the ancient and 
universal covenant with Noah, which was yet to be fulfilled by the 
seed of Abraham, for the salvation of all nations. If the dying 
request of Joseph was remembered, we cannot suppose that the 
sublime prospects held out to their own race by the word and oath of 
the Lord were altogether forgotten. We must presume they were 
the topics of frequent meditation and fervent prayer. 

20-22. Tliey set out from Sukkoth. They arrived at this place on 
the first day of unleavened bread, which was to be kept as a Sabbath. 
They probably gave it the name Sukkoth, booths, tabernacles, pavilions 
(Gen. xxxiii. 17), because they set up a few booths and spent some 
-portion of the day in holy rest, a thankful rest after liberty achieved. 
This is the solemn beginning of that dwelling in booths which was 
afterwards celebrated in the feast of tabernacles in the seventh month 
(Lev. xxiii. 39-43). And encamped in Etham. On the second day 
they reached this place, which lay probably in the space between the 
Bitter Lakes and the head of the Gulf of Suez. Niebuhr identifies it 
with Ajrud. But it was most probably a little farther east. 21, 2*2. 
And the Lord went before them. Here we enter into the region of 
the supernatural. God now appears as Jehovah, the Author and 
Upholder of being, of covenant and promise. By day in a pillar of 
cloud. A visible pillar of cloud or vapor, a conspicuous object that 
could be seen not only by the marshalled host but by the scattered 
companies of women and children, as they fed their flocks and followed 
afar off the marvellous signal of the divine presence. A great host 
marching through a country without roads or other marks of civiliza- 
tion must be provided with some conspicuous object to serve as a 



EXODUS XHL 20-22. 145 

signal to the main body and to all straggling parties connected with 
it. Hence the round grate fall of kindled fuel, elevated on a pole, 
which was carried before caravans and armies in the East, (Curtius 
v. 2, 7). The ancient Persians carried a sacred fire in silver altars 
before their armies, and other ancient nations observed a similar custom 
(Curtius, iii. 3, 9 ; Diod. Sic, xvi. 66). As the Lord now undertakes 
the miraculous guidance of the chosen nation, he manifests his presence 
by a majestic pillar of cloud, reaching from earth to sky. This appears 
in the day as a dark cloud, contrasted by its shade with the clearness 
of the sunshine, and in the night as a bright fire to give them light. 
As the heat of the day was unfavorable for active exertion, it was 
customary to go by night as well as by day ; and hence the pillar was 
present by night and by day to the journeying people. In it the Lord 
himself was present as the leader and protector of his people (Ex. 
xiv. 19, 20; Num. xiv. 14; Ps. cv. 39); and from it he speaks to 
Moses as the representative and lawgiver of the people (Ex. xix., 
xxxiii. 9 ; Num. xii. 5), and on one grand occasion to the assembled 
people themselves (xx.). He who thus manifests his presence to his 
people is also called the angel of the God (xiv. 19). The same mode 
of manifestation is varied merely according to the circumstances in the 
lambent flame of the burning bush. It appears afterwards also in the 
cloud over the mercy-seat, between the cherubim, which in the theo- 
logical language of Israel is called the shekinah (n3" , 5^3), or dwelling- 
place of God. The elementary forms of cloud and fire are extremely 
apposite to the present purpose of guiding the host of the Lord by day 
and night. They have at the same time a general fitness to indicate 
the presence of the Lord without awakening any material or carnal 
misconceptions in the mind of the beholder. They do not belong to 
the kingdom of nature or art, and therefore do not suggest any debasing 
views of the Creator, or impute to him any properties of the creature. 
They are in themselves preternatural, and at the same time do not 
assume any definite form or resemblance of any creature, and therefore 
are not in danger of being taken for anything but the surroundings of 
the present Deity. Fire, in its various forms of flame, light, heat, and 
electric flash, is a striking emblem of the great Spirit, and the smoke 
or vapor which accompanies it is a manifest type of the phenomena 
which surround and conceal the essence, while at the same time they 
19 



146 THE ESCAPE OF ISRAEL. 

indicate the presence of the Mighty Potentate. The pillar that bal- 
ances itself in mid-air, unsupported by the earth and unshaken by the 
winds of heaven, serves well to mark the presence of him who is in- 
dependent of the laws of nature. And lastly the pillar of fire and cloud 
(xiv. 24) is manifestly not the Lord, nor a figure of the Lord, but the 
visible and real sign of his actual presence among his people for their 
guidance, protection, and comfort. The pillar of cloud did not cease. 
It did not vanish from their view ; but was a constant and unerring 
signal before or in the sight of the people. We have not now the 
pillar of fire and cloud ; but we have the word of God, which is a 
lamp to our feet and a light to our path. This also is a supernatural 
revelation of the present Lord and his Messiah by the eternal Spirit, 
conveyed through the minds and words of holy men. This spiritual 
flame, kindled from heaven and enshrined in the cloud of human 
speech, has not been lost or extinguished, but continued from genera- 
tion to generation, and is in the way of being diffused throughout the 
whole world, to be the guide of the nations to the land of promise till 
the days of darkness disappear. It remains a speaking token of the 
continual presence of the God of all grace — of the Father, the Son, 
and Holy Ghost — in his church. 



CHAP. XIV. — ESCAPE OF ISRAEL. OVERTHROW OF EGYPT. 

2. rviinti h 5 Pi hachiroth, the mouth of the caves (pi-achi-rot, place 
of reeds or sedge, Jablonski). Hachiroth bears some resemblance to 
Ajrud. 

bHyn Migdol, tower. The site has not been ascertained, but is sup- 
posed by some to be Muktala. 

fax b?a Baal-tsephon, place of Typhon, the fiery and mephitic 
blast, the drought that consumes all vegetable life. But on the other 
hand it may mean the hiding of Baal, and thus form a local name for 
the west, or the point where the sun sets. 

7. tzrbE third part; a musical instrument; a third man, rpto-rarTys, 
or knight. The last term is here employed in a wide sense, to denote 
a class of adjutants who were near the king for active and trusty 
service in peace or war. 



EXODUS XIV. 147 

XIV. 1. And the Lord spake unto Moses saying. 2. Speak 
unto the sons of Israel and let them turn and encamp before 
Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea ; before Baal-zephon, 
over against it let them encamp by the sea. 3. And Pharoh 
will say of the sons of Israel, They are entangled in the land ; 
the wilderness hath shut them in. 4. And I will harden Pha- 
roh's heart, and he shall pursue after them ; and I will be 
honored upon Pharoh and upon all his army, and Mizraim 
shall know that I am the Lord. And they did so. 5. And it 
was told the king of Mizraim that the people fled : and the 
heart of Pharoh and of his servants was turned against the 
people ; and they said, What is this we have done, that we have 
l et Israel go from serving us. 6. And he made ready his 
chariot, and took his people with him. 7. And he took six 
hundred chosen chariots, and all the chariots of Mizraim, and 
knights over all of them. 8. And the Lord hardened the heart 
of Pharoh king of Mizraim, and he pursued after the sons of 
Israel : and the sons of Israel were coming out with a high 
hand. 9. And Mizraim pursued after them, and all the chariot 
horses of Pharoh and his horsemen, and his army overtook 
them encamping on the sea by Pi-hahiroth before Baal-zephon. 
10. And Pharoh drew nigh : and the sons of Israel lifted up 
their eyes, and behold Mizraim marched after them ; and the 
sons of Israel were sore afraid, and cried unto the Lord. 11. 
And they said unto Moses, Because there were no graves in 
Mizraim hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness ? 
Why hast thou dealt thus with us to bring us out of Mizraim ? 

12. Is not this the word that we told thee in Mizraim, saying, 
Let us alone that we may serve Mizraim ? For it had been 
better for us to serve Mizraim than to die in the wilderness. 

13. And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not ; stand still, 
and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you 



148 THE ESCAPE OF ISEAEL. 

to-day : for whereas ye have seen Mizraim to-day, ye shall see 
them again no more forever. 14. The Lord shall fight for 
you, and ye shall hold your peace. ^[ 22. 

15. And the Lord said unto Moses, Why criest thou unto me ? 
Speak unto the sons of Israel that they set out. 16. And thou 
lift up thy rod and stretch out thy hand over the sea and 
divide it : and the sons of Israel shall go into the midst of the 
sea on dry ground. 17. And I, behold I will harden the heart 
of Mizraim, and they shall go in after them ; and I will be 
honored upon Pharoh and upon all his army, upon his chariots 
and upon his horsemen. 18. And Mizraim shall know that I 
am the Lord when I am honored upon Pharoh, upon his 
chariots and upon his horsemen. 19. And the angel of God, 
that went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind 
them : and the pillar of cloud removed from before them and 
stood behind them. 20. And it came between the camp of 
Mizraim and the camp of Israel ; and the cloud and darkness 
were to those, and it lightened the night to these : and the one 
drew not near the other all the night. 21. And Moses 
stretched his hand over the sea ; and the Lord drove the sea 
by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry 
ground ; and the waters were divided. 22. And the sons of 
Israel went in the midst of the sea on the dry ground : and 
the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand and on 
their left. 23. And Mizraim pursued, and all Pharoh's horses, 
his chariots, and his horsemen went after them into the midst 
of the sea. 24. And it came to pass in the morning watch 
that the Lord looked into the host of Mizraim in the pillar of 
lire and cloud, and troubled the host of Mizraim. 25. And 
he took off their chariot wheels, and made them drive heavily : 
and Mizraim said, Let me flee from the face of Israel ; for the 
Lord fighteth for them against Mizraim. ^f 23. 



EXODUS XIV. 1-14. 149 

26. And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thy hand 
over the sea, and the waters shall return upon Mizraim, upon 
his chariots, and upon his horsemen. 27. And Moses stretched 
forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned when the 
morning appeared to its force : and Mizraim fled against it ; 
and the Lord overthrew Mizraim in the midst of the sea. 
28. And the waters returned and covered the chariots, and 
the horsmen, and all the army of Pharoh that went after them 
into the sea : there remained of them not even one. 29. And 
the sons of Israel had walked on the dry ground in the midst 
of the sea ; and the waters were a wall unto them on their 
right hand and on their left. 30. And the Lord on that day 
saved Israel out of the hand of Mizraim ; and Israel saw Miz- 
raim dead upon the sea-shore. 31. And Israel saw the great 
hand which the Lord put forth on Mizraim, and the people 
feared the Lord : and they believed in the Lord, and in Moses 
his servant. ^| 24. 

The ten plagues were preceded by a series of miraculous signs by 
which the Lord attested the commission of his servant. The present 
chapter records the miraculous escape of Israel through the Ked Sea, 
and the overthrow of Mizraim in attempting the same passage by the 
return of the waters to their ordinary course. The number ten is 
expressive of completeness. The twelve interpositions of the Lord 
on behalf of his people indicate a deliverance according to the cove- 
nant of grace which stands between them. The number twelve plays 
an important part in the series of symbolical numbers ; for being com- 
posed of the factors three and four, it fits well with the notion of a 
covenant between God and the world of mankind (see on Gen. ii. 3). 

1-14. The Lord's direction to Israel concerning the third day's 
march. Let them turn. The word here employed denotes to return 
or turn back from the way hitherto pursued. Etham, we have seen, 
was on the edge of the wilderness to which it gave name (xiii. 20). 
To go forward, was to pass immediately into the wilderness, whither 



150 THE ESCAPE OF ISRAEL. 

Pharoh, on changing his mind, might have pursued without hinderance 
the embarrassed and imperfectly armed fugitives. If the Lord would 
not lead them by the direct road into the land of promise, lest they 
should be discouraged by the appearance of war, much more must he 
not conduct them straight into the wilderness, where they might be 
readily overtaken and discomfited by a well disciplined host with all 
the accoutrements of war. Hence the order to change the line of 
march. Encamp before Pi-hahiroth. The place here mentioned has 
been by many identified with Ajrud, a fort, with a well of bitter water, 
on the pilgrim route from Cairo to Mecca, four hour's northwest of 
Suez. The site is probable enough, and even the name, has a distant 
resemblance to that in the text. Between Migdol and the sea. The 
place here mentioned is named from its nature, being a tower situated 
on some eminence or vantage ground, between which and the sea lay 
a level area of about ten miles extent. In this plain the marshalled 
bands of Israel are to encamp, having apparently Ajrud, or Hahiroth 
to the northwest, Migdol to the west, and the sea to the east. 
Before Baal-zephon. In the absence of definite information, and after 
the local changes of thirty-three centuries, it appears impossible to 
determine the site thus designated. It seems connected with Baal, or 
the Sun ; and was perhaps a temple erected on a peak, or spur, of 
Jebel Attaka. Hence it lay, not improbably, on the south of the 
encamping ground, which was then before Baal-zephon that was over 
against Pi-hahiroth. Thus the Israelites in their new station would 
have the mountains on the west and south, and the sea on the east. 
They were thus brought into the only place where an effectual barrier 
could be put between them and a pursuing enemy, as the event will 
show. 3. And Pharoh will say. This very position of Israel, which 
is eventually to relieve them from a harassing and overwhelming foe, 
seems of all others the most certain to leave them an easy prey to the 
destroyer. They are entangled in the land. They have fallen into a 
snare, from which it is impossible to escape. It is still in my power to 
detain them in the land from which their leader has not been able to 
extricate them. The wilderness has shut them in. They have been 
afraid to face the wilderness, which does not naturally afford the 
means of supporting so vast a host of men, in addition to the con- 
course of flocks and herds, for which it might yield a scanty subsistence. 



EXODUS XIV. 1-9. 151 

Pharoh will conjecture that the fear of perishing by famine has been 
the cause of their turning back. 4. And I will harden Pharoh' s 
heart. See on iv. 21. And I will be honored upon Pharoh. The 
Lord has been already honored in the eleven manifestations of his 
power before Pharoh. His glory will be still more signally displayed 
in the twelfth. Shall know that I am the Lord. See on vi. 2. 
And they did so. This brief sentence sums up their compliance. 

5-9. The pursuit of Pharoh. The third day had now arrived. 
The panic which had seized the Egyptians had now given way to 
other feelings. Pride, ambition, and revenge again took possession 
of the breast of Pharoh. But the narrative reverts to the first or 
second day after the escape of Israel. It was told the king of 
Mizraim that the people fled. This may have taken place on the 
second day after their departure. On the first day they must have 
been too busy with the mournful task of caring for the dead (Num. 
xxxiii. 4). The heart of Pharoh and of his servants was turned 
against the people. The sight of their own dead, and the thought of 
those making their escape who had been the occasion of this domestic, 
as well as national, calamity, aroused the spirit of enmity in their 
hearts. What is this we have done ? The fierceness of their dis- 
appointment now exceeds the bitterness of their grief. 6, 7. Made 
ready his chariot. Orders for instant preparation were not long in 
following this exasperation on the part of Pharoh and his servants, 
and the military part of the nation would be constrained to a prompt 
acquiescence. On the second or third day, therefore, Pharoh and his 
people set out in pursuit. Six hundred chosen chariots, belonging to 
the king himself; all the chariots belonging to the state. Horses 
were imported into Egypt from Asia. They are first mentioned on 
the monuments in the reign of Ames or Amosis, the first of the 18th 
dynasty, and are supposed to have been introduced by the shepherd 
kings. Herodotus relates (ii. 108) that Sesostris so intersected the 
country with canals as to render it unfit for horses or chariots. And 
knights over all of them. The knights here are men-at-arms, who 
were ready for any service requiring promptitude and fidelity. They 
cannot now be more exactly defined. 8. And the sons of Israel 
were coming out with a high hand. The people were animated with 
the triumphant confidence which so great a deliverance by the hand 



152 THE PURSUIT OF PHAROH. 

of the Lord had inspired, and their courage had not yet been damped 
by the sight of the Egyptians pursuing. Overtook them. We are 
now fairly arrived at the third day, on which the Israelites encamped 
on the sea by Pi-hahiroth before Baal-zephon. The pursuers had 
probably started on the second day, and the deflection of the Israelites 
was enjoined in order to place an impassable barrier between them 
and their implacable enemy. 

10. Tne expostulation of the people with Moses when there seems 
to be no possibility of escaping from Pharoh. And Pharoh drew 
nigh, so as to come within view. The sons of Israel descry the 
pursuing enemy, and are sore afraid. They cried unto the Lord, 
doubtless in the extremity of their despair. If they had bethought 
them of the wonderful interposition that opened their way out of 
Egypt, or cast their eyes on the pillar of cloud and fire that had begun 
to accompany them, they might have retained their self-possession, 
even on the approach of the enemy. But at the sight of their former 
masters, approaching in all the pomp of war, their courage fails. In 
a human point of view their case was bad enough. The mountains 
were on the west and south, the sea on the east, and the war chariots 
of the well-appointed foe advancing on the north. There was not the 
slightest prospect of ultimate escape for a fugitive people scantily 
furnished with the means of defence. 11, 12. In the agony of distress 
they upbraid their leader with the apparent result of his ill-advised 
rashness. 13, 14. Moses is still strong in faith. He has had abun- 
dant proofs of the power and truth of God, and he has heard him 
announce that he will now be honored in Pharoh and all his army. 
He has therefore no doubt of full and timely deliverance. He ac- 
cordingly exhorts the people to stand still, and see the salvation of the 
Lord. Ye shall see them no more for ever. This implies that he 
was not unaware of the catastrophe that was approaching. The Lord 
shall fight for you. He only could have delivered a defenceless 
people from a fully equipped and infuriated enemy ; and he has taken 
his own way of accomplishing the task. He might no doubt have 
allowed the Israelites to march on into the wilderness, and in some 
other way arrested the hot pursuit of the vindictive Pharoh. But it 
is merely impossible for us to shew that any other way would have 
equally well served all the purposes of salvation to the fugitives, 



EXODUS XIV. 10-25. 153 

destruction to the pursuers, and admonition to all the survivors of that 
memorable night that was drawing nigh. 

15-25. The passage of Israel on dry ground through the Red Sea. 
Why criest thou unto me ? This is a reply, it may be, to the mere 
circumstances of the case, that have a voice that reaches the heart of 
God (Gen. iv. 10), but also no doubt to the earnest supplications of 
the people, and even of Moses. It seems to intimate that Moses was 
the representative of the despairing people, or that he was himself 
either unduly moved by the apparent danger, or in some degree 
forgetful of what ought to be done at this momentous crisis. That 
they set out, break up their present encampment. It is probable that 
the marching was done for the most part in the night, or at all events 
in the evenings and mornings, and that the people had rested some 
time in their present station. Lift up thy rod. It is not recorded that 
Moses was directed before this to employ his rod for opening up the 
way. But the question of the Lord seems to intimate that he might 
have been prepared for such a command. 17, 18. In these words we 
have a reiteration of the statement contained in vs. 4, with considerable 
amplification in the details. I will harden the heart of Mizraim, not 
of Pharoh only. Upon his horsemen and upon his chariots. This is 
a specification of the principal or characteristic parts of Pharoh's host. 
19, 20. The issuing of the above command to Moses is the first of a 
series of steps or movements in the narrative correspondent with the 
native grandeur of the occasion. These two verses contain the second 
step. The angel of God, with the pillar of fire and cloud that had 
hitherto headed the march of Israel's manhood, now moved to the 
rear, between the camps or hosts of Israel and Mizraim. This awe- 
inspiring column now assumed a twofold aspect, presenting a dark and 
cloudy side to Egypt, and a bright and cheering one to Israel, and 
remaining as a tower of fire between them all the night. 21. The 
third step is the dividing of the waters. Drove the sea by a strong 
east wind. A strong northeast wind is said to have considerable 
influence in the present day on the ebb of the tide in the Red Sea, as 
well as in other places. Such a natural occurrence, however, only 
drives out the whole body of waters farther from the shore. It does 
not " divide the waters," and so make them " a wall " on each side of 
the dry ground, or leave time or space for the passage of a large 
20 



154 OVERTHROW OF PHAROH. 

multitude, or happen precisely at the moment when escape from an 
advancing foe makes it convenient for the leader of the retreating 
squadrons to wave over the waters his rod of power. We cannot 
explain how the sea became dry ground. We only know that the 
Lord commanded Moses to stretch out his wand, and he did so, and 
that the resulting change was accompanied with a strong east wind. 
Whether there was an elevation of the bed of the sea we are not 
informed, and the letter of the text seems not in favor of it. 22. The 
next step is the passage of Israel, with a wall of waters on each side. 
23-25. Then, in hot haste, the Egyptians rush in between the watery 
walls. All their host are soon in the midst of the sea. In the morn- 
ing watch. Before the captivity the night was divided by the Israelites 
into three watches, the first watch (n'haEJ&t irjo, Lam. ii. 19), the 
middle watch (fttiait] rnt'Jx, Judg. vii. 19), and the morning watch. 
It appears that the Israelites had the space of two watches at least, 
or eight hours, for effecting their passage. The Lord looked. An 
unwonted darting of the lightning flash and rumbling of the awful 
thunder was the probable accompaniment of this look. And troubled 
the host of Mizraim. Flash after flash shot through the sky; peal 
after peal broke over their heads ; and the midnight darkness pre- 
vented them from driving their chariots with safety. And he took off 
their chariot wheels. We are not told whether this was done with or 
without special means. But we can readily perceive that the boulders, 
hollows, and other inequalities of a sea-bed, with the mental confusion 
arising from the thunder, would render the ground, which was passable 
for footmen with light, very difficult and destructive to the wheels of 
the Egyptian cars in the dark. The wonders of the few preceding 
weeks recur to their minds, and the conviction again breaks upon them 
with irresistible force, that the Lord fights for Israel. 

It is of course impossible to determine such details of this extraor- 
dinary event as are not expressly laid down in the narrative. And it 
is but fair to the narrator to abstain from any hypothesis that would 
not square with its consistency or credibility. We have already seen 
(xii. 37) that the text does not assert or warrant the assumption that 
the whole people, with their flocks and herds, ever assembled at one 
point. The women, children, and servants, accompanied perhaps with 
a portion of the full-grown men for help and protection, continued in 



EXODUS XIY. 23-31. 155 

charge of their cattle and moveable property, and we have no doubt, 
moved with such speed as they might, in small parties, grazing the 
flocks as they went along towards the wilderness, with which their 
pastoral life made them perfectly familiar. Intelligence of the general 
movement would be conveyed to these scattered parties in ways that 
are habitual to all wandering tribes. The pillar of fire and cloud 
would also be conspicuous from afar, and would serve to make the 
ramblers acquainted with the position and progress of the main body 
of full-grown men. When, therefore, the order was given at Etham 
to turn back and encamp at "the mouth of the caves," it referred only 
to the five or six hundred thousand men who were marshalled and 
encamped, and were the object of attack to Mizrairn and the ground of 
confidence to their own wives and children. Allowing the manhood 
of Israel to be all present, and assigning a square yard of standing- 
ground to each, we find they can be placed within the square of half a 
mile ; and, consequently, they have scope enough to deploy and encamp 
within the plain of ten miles square lying between the hills and the 
sea. At Suez, which is situated on or by the ruins of the ancient 
Kolzum or Kkvcr/jLa, about two miles from the most northern point of 
the shore, the gulf is not more than two thirds of a mile wide. But 
the position of Suez does not correspond with the description of the 
place of encampment given in the text. This seems to have been at 
the base of Jebel Attakah, where the channel is six or seven miles 
across. If the " dry ground " were a quarter of a mile wide, the Isra- 
elites would form a column a quarter of a mile in rank and a mile in 
file. Such a body might cross a channel of six miles in six hours, and 
therefore, notwithstanding the roughness of a sea-bottom, might easily 
decamp, set out, and reach the opposite bank in eight. By the time 
they had reached the shore, the pursuers, with their chariots of war, 
would be in the middle of the channel, where the depression of the 
bottom and the difficulty of progress were the greatest. 

26-31. In three more verses the destruction of the Egyptian host 
is described. Stretch out thy hand with the rod of power. The 
waters shall return upon Mizrairn. When the power that restrained, 
for the time, the laws of nature is withdrawn, the waters return to 
their wonted level. Three or four fathoms would suffice to bury all 
the host of Egypt in the overwhelming waves. ' At the appearing of 



156 OVERTHROW OF PHAROH. 

the morning the sea returned to its course. At one fell sweep of the 
mighty waters all the chivalry of Mizraim is laid for ever low. A 
mild message, a manifest sign from heaven, only exasperated the pride 
of Pharoh. Ten awful plagues failed to subdue the obstinacy of his 
heart. A final judgment, of terrific sublimity, terminates his career of 
presumption (vs. 29-31). In a style of simple grandeur the Hebrew 
penman closes his narrative with a brief summary of Israel's deliverance. 
And the sons of Israel had walked. This verse marks the contrast 
between the march of Mizraim and Israel. The Lord on that day 
saved Israel. The overwhelming sea effectually, and for ever, arrested 
the pursuit of the Egyptians. The Lord chose this way. If the 
Israelites had been allowed to advance without deviating: from their 
route into the wilderness, he must have adopted some other way, 
equally miraculous, of stopping the progress of their foes. Mizraim 
dead upon the sea-shore. The east wind ceasing on the outstretching 
of Moses's hand, and perhaps even a western breeze springing up, the 
reaction of the returning sea cast up the greater part of the Egyptian 
army, with all its chariots and accoutrements, on the eastern shore, at 
the feet of the Israelites. There is the utmost probability, therefore, 
in the statement of Josephus (II. xvi. 6), made before recent contro- 
versies were mooted, that "on the next day Moses gathered together 
the weapons of the Egyptians, which were brought to the camp of 
the Hebrews by the current of the sea, and the force of the winds 
assisting it; and he conjectured that this also happened by divine 
providence, that so they might not be destitute of weapons." The 
great hand which the Lord put forth. To make a hand is one of 
those phrases on which old English and ancient Hebrew coincide. 
Several salutary consequences of this great wonder which the people 
had seen, are here enumerated. The fear of the Lord, that reveren- 
tial and submissive feeling which is the beginning of wisdom, was 
called forth by the awful grandeur of that scene of judgment and 
mercy which they witnessed. Trust in the Lord was awakened in 
their breasts by the discriminating result, in which an awful doom fell 
upon their adversaries, and a great salvation was accomplished for 
themselves. That their confidence in Moses should now be estab- 
lished was a necessary consequence of trust in the Lord. There was 
at the same time a lesson here for all nations that were within hear- 



EXODUS xv. 157 

ing to return to the Lord, the God of their being, and submit 
themselves to his rightful authority and proffered mercy. The intelli- 
gent reader will acknowledge that these verses form a meet finale to 
the preceding narrative. 



CHAP. XV. — THE SONG OF MOSES. 

2. fn Jah, he who has been, has manifested his being by illustrious 
acts of divine power. It seems to stand for Hii the perfect of JViH as 
TjV 1 for T^ri and d£ from Dip This name occurs for the first time 
after the signs and wonders of the divine presence in the land of 
Egypt; as the name Ehjeh occurs before these extraordinary events. 
As the latter denotes him who is about to manifest his being, so the for- 
mer seems to indicate him who has manifested his being. As Jehovah 
is the self-existent, the self-manifesting Agent, the constant Causer of 
all effects ; so Ehjeh is the prophetic Jehovah, and Jah the historical 
Jehovah. This historical shade of meaning is obvious in Isa. xii. 2, 
where the first clause of verse 2 is quoted with Jah Jehovah, instead 
of the simple Jah, and in Isa. xxvi. 4, where the same combination 
occurs. This conjunction of the names also teaches us that they are 
not synonymous, but have a perceptible difference of meaning, such as 
we have indicated. In the prayer of Hezekiah (Isa. xxxviii. 11) we 
cannot mistake the same reference to him who has actually and 
signally manifested his being in the former history of his chosen 
people, and will yet still further vindicate his title to this emphatic des- 
ignation. This name also occurs forty-one times in the Psalms, which 
are full of historical allusions. In Ps. cxviii. 14, the present clause 
is again repeated, and the name recurs six times in all. The doxology 
rr-iibbn is repeated twenty-four times. The name is natural in suGh 
a combination, as praise often turns upon benefits actually conferred. 

rnsT old form of mot . 

rr:^ 1 will glorify or celebrate. Others, I will cause to dwell, 
make a habitation for. 

20. D^na Miriam, Mapta/A, Mapia, exalted, contumacious or bitter. 

sp timbrel, the Spanish aduffa or diff ; r. strike. 



158 THE SONG OF MOSES. 

23. iTtB Marah, bitterness. 

T T ' 

27. n\*x Elim, frees. 

XV. 1. Then sang Moses and the sons of Israel this song 
unto the Lord, and. they spake, saying : 

I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously: 
The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. 

2. My strength and song is Jah, and he became my salvation: 
He is my God, and T will glorify him ; 

My father's God, and I will exalt him. 

3. The Lord is a man of war, the Lord is his name. 

4. Pharoh's chariots and his army hath he cast into the 

sea: 
And the choice of his knights are drowned in the Red 
Sea. 

5. The depths have covered them : 
They sank into the pools as a stone. 

6. Thy right hand, Lord, is glorious in power : 
Thy right hand, Lord, crusheth the enemy. 

7. And in thy great triumph thou overthrowest thy foes : 
Thou sendest forth thy wrath ; it consumes them as 

stubble. 

8. And with the blast of thy nostrils, the waters were 

heaved up : 
The floods stood upright as a heap : 
The depths were condensed in the heart of the sea. 

9. The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, 

I will divide the spoil : my lust shall be full of them ; 
I will draw my sword ; my hand shall seize them. 

10. Thou blewest with thy blast, the sea covered them : 
They sank as lead in the mighty waters. 

11. Who is like thee among the gods, Lord ? 



EXODUS xv. 159 

Who is like thee, glorious in holiness, 
Awful in praises, doing wonders ? 

12. Thou stretchedst out thy right hand ; the earth swallowed 

them : 

13. Thou leddest in thy mercy the people thou hast redeemed : 
Thou guidedst them in thy strength to thy holy habitation. 

14. The nations have heard, they tremble : 
Terror hath seized the inhabitants of Pelasheth. 

15. Then were the dukes of Edom confounded ; 

The chiefs of Moab, trembling took hold of them : 
All the inhabitants of Kenaan melted away. 

16. Horror and trembling shall fall upon them ; 
By thy great arm they shall be still as a stone : 
Till thy people pass over, Lord ; 

Till the people thou hast purchased pass over. 

17. Thou shalt bring them and plant them in the hill of thine 

inheritance ; 
The place of thy dwelling thou hast made, Lord : 
The sanctuary, Lord, thy hands have established. 

18. The Lord shall reign for ever and ever. 

19. For the horse of Pharoh went with his chariot and his 
horsemen into the sea ; and the Lord brought back upon them 
the waters of the sea : and the sons of Israel went on the dry 
ground in the midst of the sea. ^f 25. 

20. And Miriam the phrophetess, the sister of Aaron, took 
the timbrel in her hand ; and all the women came forth after 
her with timbrels and with dances. 21. And Miriam answered 
them, Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously ; 
the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. § 16. 

22. And Moses led Israel from the Red Sea ; and they came 
out into the wilderness of Shur : and they went three days in 
the wilderness, and found no water. 23. And they came to 



160 THE SONG OF MOSES. 

Mar ah, and could not drink the water out of Marah, for it was 
bitter : therefore they called the name of it Marah. 24. And the 
people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink ? 
25. And he cried unto the Lord, and the Lord shewed him a 
tree, and he cast it into the water, and the water was made 
sweet: there he set them a statute and an ordinance, and 
there he proved them. 26. And he said, If thou wilt dili- 
gently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and do that 
which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments, 
and keep all his statutes, no disease which I put upon Miz- 
raim will I put upon thee ; for I am the Lord that healeth 
thee. § 17. 

27. And they came to Elim, where were twelve springs of 
water and seventy palm trees ; and they encamped there by 
the water. 

A reverential fear and a grateful trust in the Lord were the senti- 
ments that swelled in the breasts of Israel as they beheld the issue of 
that awful interposition by which they themselves were saved and 
their enemies destroyed. These emotions find expression in the 
following song of Moses, the highest merit of which is its fitness for 
.the occasion. It is a triumphal ode, in which the joyful people 
celebrate the praises of their divine deliverer. They ask not wisely, 
who demand a long training or a high culture as the needful ante- 
cedent of a nation's songs. The nation that is capable of achieving or 
estimating noble deeds is wont to contain within itself some voice 
that gives meet utterance to its loftiest emotions in harmonious num- 
bers. The man who was able to describe in fitting symmetry of style 
*the ancient ways of God with man was also competent to express, in 
the measured flow of winged words, the devout thanksgiving of Israel 
to the God of his salvation. This ode consists of eighteen verses, 
arranged in alternate stanzas of three and two verses. It consequently 
begins and ends with a stanza of three verses. The long stanzas refer 
to the Lord and his ransomed people, and the short stanzas to their 
defeated or dismayed opponents. If read according to this arrange- 



EXODUS XV. 1-5. 161 

ment the import of the ode will come out more finely and strikingly. 
The song, and the circumstances which accompanied its singing, 
occupy twenty-one verses, and the remaining seven verses of the 
chapter record the journey to and the encampment at Elim. 

1-18. The song of Moses. Then sang. On the very occasion 
when the mind of Moses was strung up to the highest pitch under the 
influence of the Spirit of the Lord was this ode composed. 3foses 
and the sons of Israel The primitive tribes of mankind seem to have 
had a singular aptitude for taking up the strain of emotion, and 
chanting it in concert to some simple measure. The harp and the 
pipe were among the earliest discoveries of the race, and these pre- 
suppose the modulated cadences of the human voice. The untutored 
ear of the enthusiast arranges the coming words into the artless war- 
blings of immortal verse. The fine melody, laden with the noble 
sentiment, finds an echo in other breasts, and the sublime harmony 
of sound and feeling bursts from the assembled multitude. Music is 
the handmaid of memory and the shadow of reason. It cannot surprise 
us, then, to find Moses and the sons of Israel on the scene and in the 
hour of so great a deliverance giving utterance to their common emo- 
tions in the triumphal ode. This song unto the Lord. There wanted 
but this addition, " unto the Lord," to give its true character to the 
solemn anthem which now rose from the many thousands of Israel. 
Man never rises to the height of his dignity until he realizes his rela- 
tion to his Creator. The following hymn is a model and a storehouse 
of materials for all future songs of praise. 

1-5. These verses contain the first period of song. Three verses 
celebrate the praises of the Lord ; two dwell on the downfall of his 
enemies. I will sing. Each patriot for himself lifts up the general 
song of praise. Unto the Lord, unto God, whose character it is to 
give existence to his purpose and promise. For he hath triumphed 
gloriously ; he has manifested the grandeur of his power to save the 
oppressed and destroy the oppressor. The horse and his rider. This 
is a general reference to the scene of the preceding night, in which 
the promise-performing character of God was conspicuously displayed. 
2. Jah, He who has manifested his being by signal acts of power. 
My strength and song. He has proved himself able to deliver me, 
and therefore he is the object of my praise. Became my salvation, 
21 



162 THE S0NG 0F MOSES. 

By actually saving me from the might of Egypt, he has earned his 
title to the name Yah. My God. I have, in my own person, experi- 
enced his goodness, and with appropriating faith I gratefully confess 
him to be mine. / will glorify him. I will proclaim his excellency. 
My father's God, the God of history and of covenant, who chose 
the head of that peculiar people to which I belong. / will exalt 
him, acknowledge his transcendent majesty. 3. A man of war. A 
mighty potentate, who encounters and vanquishes all the adversaries 
of good. The Lord is his name. It is his essential characteristic to 
be the Author and sole Fountain of all existence, and the performer 
of his promise. Never since the beginning of things did this property 
of God receive a more practical proof than in the rescue of Israel 
from the bondage of Mizraim. After this triad of praise follow two 
verses of song on the downfall of Egypt. 4. Pharoh's chariots and 
his army. This verse forms a fine synthetic parallel, in which the 
second member ascends above the first, and so the two constitute a 
climax. The next verse is a briefer climax of a similar kind. 

6-10. In this second wave of song three verses, again, are dedicated 
to the Lord, and two to the adversary. In vs. 6 we have a parallel, 
in which the first member dwells on the cause and the second on the 
effect. In vs. 7 the parallel is in the sense rather than the form of 
the words. In vs. 8 three parallel members lend their emphasis to the 
deed of wonder which they celebrate. The former triplet referred 
more to the character of God ; the present gives more prominence to 
his procedure. The two verses relating to the adversary are full of 
compressed energy. In vs. 9 six intents of the enemy are condensed 
into one short utterance, which may be divided into two parts, of three 
sentences each, according to the punctuation, or into three members, 
of two sentences each, according to the printing. In the next verse 
of two members, the breath of God's mouth is enough, not only to 
upset all these arrogant purposes, but to sink the proud boasters into 
the depths of the sea. In the former couplet the outward array of 
Pharoh's host was depicted, in the present the inward vaunting of 
their soul is expressed ; in both the same disastrous end is poetically 
recorded. 

11-15. This is the third swell of this sacred anthem, and it is a 
step in advance of the other two. Among the gods, among the mighty 



EXODUS XV. 11-15. 163 

ones, the imaginary deities whom the nations adore. Glorious in holi- 
ness. The characteristics of God here set forth are those on which 
he has been on this occasion distinguished from all conceivable objects 
of comparison. Holiness, or absolute purity of nature, is one of these 
attributes of God, in which he transcends all fallen man's imaginary 
gods. The gods of Greece, Rome, India, and all other heathens, par- 
took of the moral infirmity of their votaries. On the contrary, holiness 
is the glory, the conspicuous excellence, of the divine essence. Aivful 
in praises. Praises are here put for the praiseworthy deeds which 
come from him whose glory is holiness. In regard to the holiness 
of these deeds he is truly awful, because he taketh vengeance for 
transgression with as much exactness as he giveth recompense for 
obedience. His judgment on the oppressor is as signal as his mercy 
to the oppressed. Doing ivonders. His power is equal to his holiness 
and equity. The proud doer is destined to give way to his will, or 
perish in the attempt to resist it. Holiness and omnipotence mark 
the administration of God, and hence he is awful in praises. In these 
respects he is incomparably above the so-called gods of the heathen. 
In the two following verses we have the judicial and merciful works 
proclaimed that entitle him to be described as awful in praises. 13. 
Thou hast guided them in thy strength to thy holy habitation. The 
habitation of his holiness is most simply understood in a large sense 
of the land wherein his people are to dwell. He is their God, and 
will dwell with them, and consecrate the land of their habitation. Into 
this land they may be fairly said to have entered when they crossed 
the Red Sea, for its bounds were to be from the Red Sea unto the sea 
of the Philistines (xxiii. 31). Hence the statement "thou hast guided 
them," in the perfect tense, is literally true. But, according to the 
Hebrew idiom, even that which is purposed and determined in the 
mind and words of the speaker is indicated by the perfect form of the 
verb (Gen. xxiii. 11), much more that which, in its main substance, 
has been already effected. Now the chief part of their guidance into 
the holy land was accomplished when they were brought out of the 
bondage and territory of Mizraim. The remainder was as sure as if 
it were already completed in the promise and power of God. This 
third triplet celebrates the triumph of Jehovah. 14, 15. The Egyptian 
host is at rest for ever in the silence of death. The poet's eye, there- 



134 THE S0NG 0F MOSES. 

fore, turns to the surviving nations who might throw obstacles in the 
way of the redeemed people. The nations in general tremble. In 
particular the Philistines, who bordered on the one entrance into the 
land of holiness, and the Edomites and Moabites, who lay on the other 
route by which it might be entered, were filled with alarm. The 
inhabitants of Kenaan, who were doomed to extirpation because their 
iniquity was now full, melted away at the reports of Mizraim's over- 
throw. All this is expressed in the high-strung language of poetic 
realism, because that is conceived to have a hold on existence which 
is the inevitable and immediate consequence of things that have 
already taken place. 

16-18. The bard of emancipated Israel now turns to the future. 
The farther doings of the Lord for his people are sketched in a few 
master touches. First, a sudden and overwhelming trepidation unmans 
the adversary, and the people of the Lord are unopposed in their 
progress. This was the natural result of the divine interposition, and 
would have been the actual and uniform consequence, but for the 
unbelief and disobedience of the chosen people. 17. Thou shalt 
bring them and plant them. This is a figure taken from a tree planted 
on a hill. The tree is the holy people (Ps. i. 3) ; the hill is the land 
of promise, which was not a river valley, like Egypt, but a high land 
lying between the Jordan and the Mediterranean. To the hill of Zion 
there may be a distant allusion. The place for thy dwelling, is the 
fixed abode where he will constantly dwell. The sanctuary. In 
these three parallels we have the climax of country, home, and altar. 
18. The Lord shall reign for ever and ever. In this closing verse the 
Lord is announced as perpetual king. The introduction of three 
dispensations relating to man is clearly marked out in Scripture. 
First, The creation begins an economy in which man forms a part 
of the kingdom of God, until the fall begins the kingdom of Satan on 
the earth. Then the exodus commences a dispensation in which the 
kingdom of God begins to stand out in visible opposition to that of 
Satan, in the narrow sphere of the seed of Abraham and the land of 
Kenaan. The kingdom thus rising into visibility never again dis- 
appears from the earth. Lastly, the birth, death, and resurrection of 
Christ ushers in a dispensation in which the kingdom of God is 
destined to penetrate more and more into the usurped kingdom of 



EXODUS XV. 16-26. 1(35 

Satan, until the latter be utterly destroyed, and the former be univer« 
sally restored on the earth. There is a hopeful emphasis in the closing 
sentence of this sublime anthem. 

19. This verse is a recapitulation of the auspicious occasion on 
which the above hymn was composed. 

20, 21. The refrain of Miriam and the daughters of Israel. It is 
most probable, as we have already seen, that the women and children 
were principally with the flocks and herds, and not with the marshalled 
host that crossed the Red Sea. But a joyful reunion of as many of 
them as could leave domestic cares would be sure to take place on 
this joyful occasion. Miriam, and a few of the females of higher 
rank, may have even accompanied the host. Miriam is here described 
as the prophetess, as one who was well known to possess the gift of 
speaking to God for men, or to men for God, in prose or in song 
(Gen. xx. 7 ; Num. xii. 2). She is called the sister of Aaron, as he 
and she were older than Moses, and yet at the same time inferior to 
him in point of official rank. Took the timbrel, the well-known 
instrument for the female and the dancer. It was composed of a hoop 
or rim covered with skin, like a drum-head. It was sometimes pro- 
vided with little brass rings or bells fastened round the rim, which 
added a jingle to its drum-like sound. And with dances Miriam 
led the way with the timbrel in the dance, and all the women followed. 
The females danced in a separate choir, and the males also by them- 
selves (2 Sam. vi. 14). The dance is here used for the expression of 
a sacred joy. The song articulates, the dance gesticulates, the emotions 
of joy and congratulation. And Miriam answered them. She led 
the refrain, as Moses seems to have led the song itself. The song 
begins thus, " I will sing unto the Lord "; the refrain thus, " Sing ye 
to the Lord." This may have been chanted after every period of five 
verses, and at the end of the ode, as a completion of the last period. 
This is much more probable than the introduction of the refrain at the 
end of every verse, especially as the verses are of very unequal length. 

22-26. The journey from the Red Sea to Elim. The wilderness 
of Shur (Gen. xvi. 7). Part of this wilderness takes its name from 
Etham which was on its border (xiii. 20 ; Num. xxxiii. 8). TJiey 
went three days. If they paused at Sukkoth on the first day after the 
passover night, ecamped at Etham on the second, and at Hahiroth on 



166 THE JOUKNEY TO ELIM. 

the third, crossed the Red Sea on the night of that day, and then 
advanced three days into the wilderness, they would arrive at Marah 
on the seventh day of the feast of unleavened bread. In the interval 
of two miles between the shore and Ayun Musa (the wells of Moses), 
they celebrated their deliverance by chanting the song of Moses. The 
Ayun Musa are seven in number, according to Robinson, with many 
lesser springs around. After having refreshed themselves here they 
may have proceeded some way towards Marah, and so performed their 
first day's journey. The distance from Ayun Musa to Ain Hawarah, 
which is usually identified with Marah, is sixteen and one half hours, 
or about forty miles. The route lies between the Gulf of Suez, and 
the range of Jebel er Rahah. Ain Hawarah is a fountain of bitter 
water about three feet deep, contained in a basin of ten feet in diam- 
eter, and six feet in depth. The palm and the thorny ghurkud are 
found around it. It still merits the title of Marah, as its waters are 
bitter. 24. And the people murmured against Moses. We now hear 
the first murmur arising from the redeemed people. The marshalled 
host advancing as a regular body felt the want of water much more 
severely than if they had been scattered over the country like their 
wives and children. They had been wont to enjoy ample supplies of 
water in Egypt, and to search not in vain for it even in the wilderness, 
when divided into families and small parties. For the wilderness was 
not unfamiliar to them as nomads or roving shepherds, though the 
present route may not have been trodden by many of them before. 
The wilderness, it is to be remembered, is land affording a scanty 
pasture, but not fit for tillage (Gen. xxi. 14). With the exception of 
the Debbet er Ramleh (plain of sand) and a narrow strip along the 
Mediterranean, the wilderness of the peninsula is not a sandy but a 
gravelly soil, producing a sparse vegetation wherever there is any 
moisture. But the assembled multitude are grievously distressed by 
the want of water, and do not refrain from expressing their dissatis- 
faction. Moses however, having travelled this way before, must have 
been aware that water was near. Accordingly, on the evening of the 
sixth day, or early on the seventh, they arrived at Marah. A new 
trial of their patience is presented by the bitterness of the water, 
which was the more disagreeable to those who had been accustomed to 
the sweet waters of the Nile. To obviate this inconvenience the Lord 



EXODUS XV. 22-26. 167 

pointed out a wood to Moses which sweetened the waters. Burckhardt 
suggests that the berries of the ghurkud might have produced this 
effect. But this fruit ripens in June, two months later than the time 
when the people of Israel arrived at Marah ; and this was a tree or 
species of wood, not a berry. The effect was probably not natural, 
but miraculous, and the kind of wood is unknown. There he made 
them a statute and an ordinance. If this was on the seventh day of the 
feast of unleavened bread, and therefore a Sabbath of holy convocation, 
in which, however, extraordinary works of necessity and mercy had to 
be done, we can see how opportune was the time for making a statute 
and an ordinance. The slaying of the passover was a solemn entering 
into covenant with the Lord, and the last day of the feast was the 
completion of this act. They had now also gone three days into the 
wilderness, and therefore arrived at the place and time for performing 
the proposed sacrifice unto the Lord their God, as he should command 
them (viii. 27). A statute (ph) is a form of words engraven on a 
hard substance, such as stone, and therefore a fixed edict or decree, 
binding the people to follow the Lord. An ordinance ('J3^) is a 
judicial sentence or authoritative injunction, affirming the duty of the 
people, and accompanied with an intimation of the good and evil 
consequences of obedience and disobedience. The solemn consent of 
the people to this ordinance was given on this appropriate occasion. 
A similar transaction is recorded when Joshua renewed the covenant 
with the people (Josh. xxiv. 25). The substance of the statute and the 
ordinance is evidently contained in the following verse. The general 
obligation only to obey the Lord in all things is here tendered and 
accepted. The special terms of the divine law are to be communicated 
on a future occasion. And there he proved them. The want of water 
for three days, and the bitterness of the water when at length found, 
were the touchstone to test their hearts, to discover what qualities or 
dispositions were within, to try whether they had the beginning of 
faith and patience. 26. If thou wilt diligently hearken. Here the 
condition of perfect obedience to the occasional, as well as to the 
stated, commands of God, is explicitly laid down. No disease. The 
reward of obedience is expressly announced, and the consequence of 
disobedience not obscurely intimated. The very blessings of the 
Egyptians were turned into curses on account of their disobedience. 



1(53 QUAILS AND MANNA. 

The sweet waters of the Nile were changed into blood. On the other 
hand the disadvantages the Israelites might meet with on the way- 
would be converted into blessings if they were obedient to the voice 
of the Lord. The bitter waters of Marah are made sweet. This 
single instance indicated the rule of all God's future dealings, and so 
furnished the test by which their character was to be proved, i" am 
the Lord that healeih thee. He had preserved them from the diseases 
of Egypt, the death of the first-born, and the destruction which over- 
took the Egyptians. So would he be their deliverer in every trouble 
which should befall them. Thus Marah, with its bitter waters, sweet- 
ened even the commencement of that testing process which this people- 
had to undergo in the wilderness. 

27. Elim. Tins is identified with Wady Ghurundel, which is two 
hours or a few miles from Marah. The twelve springs and seventy 
palms made it a most delightful halting-place for the thirsting host. 
"Wady Ghurundel is fringed with trees and shrubs, forming a 
charming oasis. Here are the stunted palms, with their hairy trunks 
and dishevelled branches ; here, too, are the feathery tamarisks, with 
gnarled boughs ; and here is the accaia, with its gray foliage and bright 
blossoms, tangled by its desert growth into a thicket" (Porter, in 
Murray's Hand-book of Syria and Palestine). This refreshing valley 
is but a step from Marah, and may be regarded as the first sesting- 
place of the sons of Israel after their departure from Egypt. Here, 
accordingly, they remained for the space of three weeks (xvi. 1), 
during which they had leisure to accommodate themselves in some 
measure to desert life, to the habits of freedom and independence, 
and, above all, to the solemnities of a people reconciled to God and 
resolved to walk in newness of life. At this point, therefore, the 
chapter appropriately closes. 



X. JOURNEY FROM ELIM TO SINAI. — Ex. xvi.-xviii. 
CHAP. XVI. — QUAILS AND MANNA. 

1. "p© I. Sin, clay (Ges.). Pelusium or Tine (mud-town?), n. 
Sin, bush, thorn. The wilderness described in the present passage. 



EXODUS XVI. 169 

W3, Sinai, thorny, scraggy (Meyer), the mountain on which the 
law was proclaimed. This name is apparently connected with the 
preceding. It is probable that both belong to the same root with 
ftyo a species of thorn (iii. 2) . 

13. "Vj quail, oprvyofx-qTpa (Sept.), mother of quails, rail or quail 
king. Not locusts, as Patrick supposes, since they are nowhere else 
called by this name ; nor the Kata of the Arabians, a kind of par- 
tridge which abounds in Arabia and Syria. 

14. tjon feel (Ges.), run, cast, freeze (Meyer). 

15. )"n manna ; r. ya divide, separate. Hence it means the secre- 
tion, or sweet gum exuding in shining drops on the twigs and branches 
of the turfa or tamarisk when punctured, it is supposed, by the coccus 
?nan?iiparus. This is now called man assama, the gift of heaven, by 
the Arabs, according to the common habit of ascribing a later and 
more familiar meaning to the word than that which it originally pos- 
sessed. It falls on the leaves, twigs, or stones beneath, and has to be 
gathered before it is melted by the sun. It is then cleansed, boiled, 
strained, and put into leathern bottles, and keeps for a long time. 
This manna is not peculiar to Arabia nor to the tamarisk ; is produced 
in small quantities in wet seasons, and nearly disappears in dry ones ; 
is gathered in the month of June, and is used only as a condiment 
with the unleavened bread or pottage of the country. 

23. "pfcisnzj rest, cessation from labor. The word is found only in 
Exodus and Leviticus, and shows no change of vowel. Here only is it 
before PS'.?. It is also without the article, simply because it is either 
the predicate or in the construct state. Hence there is no ground for 
the supposition that its indefinite form marks the introduction of the 
Sabbath as a new thing hitherto unknown. 

31. 15, Koptov (Sept.), coriander. AlyvTtTLOL o^tov, 'A<£pot yot'S, quotes 
Celsius from the annotator of Dioscorides, when speaking of this plant. 
TolS is evidently the Heb. 1». Coriandrum sativum is an umbellif- 
erous plant, the leaves of which are used in soups and salads. Its 
seeds are globular, about the size of a pepper-corn, and of a greyish 
color. They form an agreeable spice, employed by confectioners, 
druggists, and distillers. This plant is common in Egypt and other 
parts of Africa, Arabia, Persia, India, and the south of Europe, and is 
cultivated in some parts of England. 
22 



170 QUAILS AND MANNA. 

36. •naif sheaf of corn. In the present chapter alone, omer, a dish 
or other vessel containing probably the grain obtained from the sheaf, 
and therefore always nearly of the same size, and so fitted to be a 
rough measure. It is to be distinguished from the homer (^eH) which 
contained ten ephahs, and therefore one hundred omers. 

XYI. 1. And all the assembly of the sons of Israel set out 
from Elim, and came unto the wilderness of Sin, which is 
between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second 
month of their departure out of the land of Mizraim. 2. And 
all the assembly of the sons of Israel murmured against Moses 
and Aaron in the wilderness. 3. And the sons of Israel said 
unto them, Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord 
in the land of Mizraim, when we sat by the flesh-pot, when we 
ate bread to the full ! For ye have brought us forth into this 
wilderness to slay all this congregation with hunger. § 18. 

4. Then said the Lorii unto Moses, Behold, I will rain for 
you bread from heaven, and the people shall go out and 
gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them 
whether they will walk in my law or not. 5. And it shall be 
on the sixth day that they shall prepare that which they bring 
in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily. 6. And 
Moses and Aaron said unto all the sons of Israel, At even, then 
shall ye know that the Lord hath brought you out of the land 
of Mizraim. 7. And in the morning, then ye shall see the 
glory of the Lord, since he heareth your murmurings against 
the Lord : and what are we that ye murmur against us.? 8. 
And Moses said, When the Lord giveth you in the evening 
flesh to eat, and bread in the morning to the full, since the 
Lord heareth your murmurings which ye murmur against 
him, what then are we ? Your murmurings are not against us, 
but against the Lord. 9. And Moses said unto Aaron, Say 
unto all the assembly of the sons of Israel, Draw near before 



EXODUS XVI. 171 

the Lord, for lie hath heard your niurmurings. 10. And it 
came to pass, when Aaron spake unto all the assembly of the 
sons of Israel, that they turned toward the wilderness ; and 
behold the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. ^[ 26. 

11. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 12. I have 
heard the murmurings of the sons of Israel : speak unto them, 
saying, Between the evenings ye shall eat flesh, and in the 
morning ye shall be filled with bread ; and ye shall know that 
I am the Lord your God. 

13. And it came to pass at even that quails came up, and 
covered the camp ; and in the morning the dew lay round 
about the camp. 14. And the dew that lay went up ; and 
behold upon the face of the wilderness something fine and 
crisp, fine as the rime on the ground. 15. And the sons of 
Israel saw it, and said one to another, It is manna. For they 
wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, it is the 
bread which the Lord hath given you to eat. 16. This the 
thing which the Lord hath commanded ; Gather of it every 
man according to his eating, an omer to the poll for the num- 
ber of your persons ; take ye every man for them that are in his 
tent. 17. And the sons of Israel did so, and they gathered, 
some more, some less. 18. And they meted it with the omer ; 
and he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that 
gathered little had no lack : they gathered every man accord- 
ing to his eating. 19. And Moses said unto them, Let no man 
leave of it till the morning. 20. And they hearkened not 
unto Moses ; and some left of it till the morning, and it bred 
worms and stank: and Moses was wrath with them. 21. 
And they gathered it every morning, every man according to 
his eating : and when the sun waxed hot it melted. 

22. And it came to pass on the sixth day that they gathered 
twice as much bread, two omers for each one, and all the 



172 QUAILS AND MANNA. 

rulers of the assembly came and told Moses. 23. And lie said 
unto them, This is that which the Lord hath spoken. To- 
morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord : bake 
that which ye will bake, and seethe that which ye will seethe, 
and all that remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until 
the morning. 24. And they laid it up till the morning, as 
Moses bade ; and it did not stink, neither was there any worm 
therein. 25. And Moses said, Eat it to-day, for to-day is the 
Sabbath unto the Lord : to-day ye shall not find it in the field. 
26. Six days ye shall gather it ; and on the seventh day, the 
Sabbath, on it there shall be none. 27. And it came to pass 
on the seventh day, that some of the people went out to gather, 
and they found none. § 19. 

28. And the Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to 
keep my commandments and my laws ? 29. See ye that the 
Lord hath given you the Sabbath ; therefore he giveth you on 
the sixth day the bread of two days : abide ye every man in 
his place ; let no man come out of his place on the seventh 
day. 30. And the people rested on the seventh day. 31. 
And the house of Israel called the name thereof manna : and 
it was like coriander seed, white ; and the taste of it was like 
a cake made with honey. 

32. And Moses said, This is the thing which the Lord hath 
commanded, Fill an omer of it to be kept for your generations, 
that they may see the bread wherewith I fed you in the wil- 
derness, when I brought you forth from the land of Mizraim. 
33. And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a pot, and put therein 
an omer full of manna, and lay it up before the Lord to be 
kept for your generations. 34. As the Lord commanded Mo- 
ses, so Aaron laid it up before the testimony to be kept. 35. 
And the sons of Israel ate manna forty years, until they came 
to a land inhabited : they ate manna until they came to the 



EXODUS XVI. 1-3. 173 

border of the land of Kenaan. 36. And the omer was the 
tenth part of the ephah. 

The subsection containing this chapter and the following two 
records the important particulars of the journey from Elim to Sinai. 
In Numbers xxxiii. 10-15 are enumerated five stations between these 
points, of which only the second, the Wilderness of Sin, and the last, 
Rephidim, are mentiond here. The present object of the historian is 
to notice the provision, protection, and government of the people in 
their wanderings. They were provided with quails, manna, and water 
from the rock ; they were protecte'd from the enemy in the victory 
they gained over Amalek ; and they were governed by Moses, with 
the advice of Jethro, his father-in-law. The mixture of evil with 
good which is displayed in the conduct of the people, is what might 
be expected from a tribe of fallen men, long corrupted by the habits 
of bondage, under a nation ignftrant of the God, or the law of truth, 
when they are but recently brought under the influence of the Spirit 
of truth, freedom, and holiness. 

1-3. The second ground of complaint among the multitude is want 
of food. Any supplies they may have brought from Egypt were now 
exhausted. All the assembly of the sons of Israel. The difficulties of 
procuring water and food were enormously increased to a collected 
host. The wives and children who were scattered over the country, 
as the Bedawin or wanderers of the desert, were able to make some 
shift for themselves, from the smallness of their parties and their 
acquaintance with a desert life. But the marshalled multitude in a 
desert, without a well-arranged commissariat, could only subsist by 
supernatural means. And came into the wilderness of Sin. From 
Num. xxx. 10 it appears that when they left Elim their first encamp- 
ment was by the Red Sea. Proceeding at present from Wady 
Ghurundel, in two and a quarter hours, we come upon Wady Useit, 
or Waseit, in which are a few brackish springs, with groves of palms 
and tamarisks. In four hours more we arrive at the point where 
Wady Shubeikeh and Wady Humr unite to form Wady Tai}dbeh. 
Thence to the plain on the shore of the Red Sea is a distance of two 
hours. This is probably the place of encampment by the Red Sea, 
where the people might have a supply of water, and obtain a last 



174 THE ROUTE TO SINAI. 

view of the land of Egypt, and at the same time catch a glimpse of 
the mountain peaks towards which they were journeying. Over the 
headland of Zelima, two hours farther, lies the plain Murkhah, where 
there is also a fountain. We may suppose the main body of the six 
hundred thousand sons of Israelites spreading themselves over all the 
interval between Taiyibeh and Murkhah by the Red Sea. And went 
unto the wilderness of Sin. The next station mentioned in Num. 
xxxiii. 11 is in the Wilderness of Sin. This region is said to be 
between Elim and Sinai. It is more narrowly limited by the station 
at the sea and Rephidim (xvii. 1). And though the station at the 
entrance into this wilderness is the only one mentioned here, yet we 
know from Num. xxxiii. 12-14 that two other stations, Dophkah 
and Alush, were occupied in it. Among the three stations in this 
extensive range of desert at least a week seems to have been spent. 
The tradition that they arrived here on a Sabbath coincides well with 
the details of the narrative. Yet the site of the present station is by 
no means determined. From the Red Sea at Taiyibeh three routes 
to Sinai are possible : one southern, by the barren plain el-Kaa, lying 
along the Gulf of Suez, and up the Wady Hibran ; another interme- 
diate, by the Wadys Shellal, Mukatteb, Feiran, and Sheikh ; and a 
third north of both, by the Wady Humr, the Debbet er-Ramleh, and 
the Wady Sheikh. The intervening stations are the wilderness of 
Sin, Dophkah, Alush, and Rephidim, all of which being unknown 
fail to give us any aid in determining the route actually pursued. 
The first route, however, extending to nearly one hundred miles, 
while the others are about eighty miles, may be rejected as too long 
for five days' march. If the Wilderness of Sin be the Plain of el-Kaa, 
the route must have been through the Wadys Mukatteb and Feiran, 
as this alone of the remaining two touched on that plain. If it be the 
Debbet er-Ramleh, the route must have been the most northern of 
the three. Wady esh-Sheikh forms the closing part of both these 
routes. The northern one seems the most open for a large body of 
men. The intermediate one is that preferred by most scholars. It 
merely touches upon el-Kaa at Ain el-Murkhah. Its main attractions 
lie in the Wady Mukatteb and Wady Feiran. The former, the writ- 
ten valley, is remarkable for the number of its rude sculptures, 
consisting of inscriptions in the Nabathaean, Greek, and Latin charac- 



EXODUS XVI. 1-3. 175 

ters, and figures of men, animals, and some other objects, on the flat 
surfaces of the freestone rocks of which the valley is composed. But 
these, though noticed by Cosmas as early as 535 a.c, are not yet 
proved to have any connection with the Israelites, and moreover are 
not confined to the Wady Mukatteb. Wady Feiran contains the 
ruins of Feiran, the Faran of early Christian times, the resort of 
pilgrims, and the see of a bishop as early as the fourth century. 
Hence many have been disposed to find here the Paran of Scripture, 
and thus establish at least one identification of names in tins region. 
But (1) the narrative contains no mention of Paran ; (2) the people 
did not reach the wilderness of Paran till they had travelled at least 
five days' journey in a northerly direction from Sinai (Num. x. 12, 
33, xi. 3, 35, xii. 16) ; and (3) the two occurrences of Mount Paran 
(Deut. xxxiii. 2 ; Hab. hi. 3) connect it with Sinai not more closely 
than Seir and Teman, and therefore afford a very precarious ground 
for identification. These two passages, however, may have led to a 
patristic identification of Mount Paran with Serbal, the lofty five- 
peaked mountain south of Wady Feiran. But even if this be Paran, 
the omission of so remarkable a name in the narrative, both here and 
in Num. xxx., is strongly against the hypothesis that Israel travelled 
by this route. As there is nothing in the text demanding this middle 
route, so there are some considerations that seem not unfavorable to 
the one more to the north. (1.) There is but one station on the Eed 
Sea. If the line of march had lain in el-Kaa, there would have been 
more than one on the shore. (2.) The Wilderness of Sin is said to 
be between Elim and Sinai ; which agrees very well with Debbet er- 
Ramleh, but can only be applied in a very loose sense to el-Kaa. 
(3.) The marching host would be kept as near the wandering families 
and flocks as possible. This is favorable to the line farthest north, 
and decidedly against that by el-Kaa. For the wanderers would go 
as little toward the south as possible, seeing they were eventually to 
turn to the north. They would linger about the wadys, where water 
and fodder were accessible. We can imagine some of them in the 
Wadys Mukatteb and Feiran, and still more in the Wady Wutah, and 
along the slopes of Jebel et-Tih, north of the Debbet er-Ramleh. It 
would be very desirable that the collective body that formed the 
centre of the horde should be somewhere between the wandering 



176 THE ROUTE TO SINAI. 

parties of women and young people, and therefore in the south border 
of Debbet er-Ramleh. (4.) The Wilderness of Sin would then be the 
Debbet er-Ramleh, or " Sandy Plain," the first part of which, the 
Debbet en-Nusb, would be reached in one day's march from Wady 
Taiyibeh, and might be left in another march by penetrating into the 
system of wadys that lie on its south side. (5.) The stations Doph- 
kah and Alush, which possibly correspond with Wadys Mureikhy and 
Akhdar, present no notable feature or incident, and are therefore 
omitted in the present narrative, a circumstance not so likely in 
Wadys Mukatteb and Feiran. (6.) The route by Debbet er-Ramleh 
is the more open and easy for a large body of men. There are some 
very difficult passes in the other route, which render it passable only 
for small companies at a time, and, therefore, insuperable for six 
hundred thousand men in five days march. For all these reasons we 
must reject the route by el-Kaa, unless we are prepared to take Jebel 
Um-Shaumer, the most southern peak of the mountain group, for 
Sinai. And for some of them, chiefly (2) and (5), we are strongly 
inclined to prefer the northern route, as the most probable. We are 
the more contented to rest in this conclusion when we imagine the 
Wadys Mukatteb and Feiran, and all others lying either south or 
north of Debbet er-Ramleh, abundantly peopled with the women and 
young people under twenty years of age, who are disannexed from the 
central host. It is extremely desirable that these, who are nearly 
double the number of the full-grown men, should have as much scope 
as possible in the environs of the main body, for the sustenance of 
themselves, and their flocks and herds. We do not feel at liberty to 
confine them even to the south of Jebel et-Tih, the great cretaceous 
range, running in an east-southeastern direction, and separating et- 
Tih, or the wilderness of Paran, from the mountainous region of the 
south. For these roaming companies could only in a very limited 
degree partake of the miraculous supplies, especially of water, afforded 
to tne congregated host, and must therefore have an ample range for 
the water and herbage that will meet the most pressing wants of their 
numerous cattle. 

Assuming, then, that Debbet er-Ramleh is the wilderness of Sin, 
we ascend Wady Humr, which, according to Robinson, is broad, and 
opens out into a large plain, with another broad wady coming into it 



EXODUS XVI. 1-10. 177 

from the east. The plain is contracted by Sarbut el-Jemel into a 
wady, where the limestone gives place to the sandstone. A broad belt 
of sandstone runs between the limestone of Jebel et-Tih, and the 
granite of the Jebel et-Tur, to which Sinai belongs. After passing 
this wady, which contains some specimens of the rock sculptures, the 
road again emerges on a broad plain sprinkled with herbage. Some- 
where about the entrance of Wady en-Nusb, in which is a fine spring 
not far from the route, we may suppose the host to have encamped in 
the Wilderness of Sin. On the fifteenth day of the second month of 
their departure, that is, of the year of their departure. A full month, 
therefore, after they left Rameses, they reached the Wilderness of Sin, 
with resources completely exhausted. 

2, 3. All the assembly. This refers we conceive to the six hundred 
thousand men of the marshalled host. Murmured against Moses and 
Aaron. The want of food now began to be sharply felt. They saw 
nothing but starvation before them, and they regarded Moses and 
Aaron as the authors of their present strait. 

4-10. He that destroyed the harvest of Egypt by the hail and the 
locust now engages to rain bread for them from heaven. Gather a 
certain rate every day. This was to be daily bread. Tliat I may 
prove them. As the abundance of Egypt vanished away before the 
indignation of the Lord, so the very barrenness of the wilderness gave 
way to the bountiful hand of the Lord, supplying their daily wants. 
In all this he was continuing the process of their probation. Their 
patience, faith, dependence, and thankfulness of spirit were constantly 
put to the test in their present experience. 5. On the sixth day 
double allowance shall be gathered. This is one element in the 
miraculous nature of the present supply. TJiey shall prepare, measure, 
pound, or grind the whole quantity gathered (Num. xi. 8). It may 
also extend to the cooking (v. 23). 6, 7. Moses and Aaron now 
communicate the benignant design of the Lord to the people. Then 
shall ye know. By experience of his wonder-working power they 
would have a new proof that he had brought them out of Egypt. 
They seemed to forget his wonders in Egypt, when they ascribed 
their present position to Moses and Aaron. Then ye shall see the 
glory of the Lord. This is the parallel of the preceding sentence. 
The glory of the Lord is seen when his hand is put forth for the 
23 



178 THE PROMISE OF BREAD. 

protection of his people by the discomfiture of their enemies, and for 
their preservation by the preternatural bestowment of the means of 
life. Since he heareth your murmurings. In his long-suffering mercy 
he will give another proof of his presence and love, that his people 
may at length lay aside their impatience and unbelief, and feel that 
their murmuring is really against the Lord, and not against the mere 
executors of his will. 8. Moses alone now explains to the people 
what the Lord is about to do. 9. He then directs Aaron to summon 
the people before the Lord, that is, to draw near to the place where 
the pillar of cloud and fire was. 10. The people at the word of 
Aaron turned toward the wilderness. TJie glory of the Lord appeared 
in the cloud. Such a dazzling brightness burst through the cloud as 
manifested the immediate presence of the Lord. 

11, 12. The Lord, having now manifested his glorious presence in 
the cloud to the beholding people, charges Moses with a message to 
the people, promising relief to their hunger. Between the evenings, 
from the beginning of the evening before sunset to the end of twilight 
(see on Gen. i. 4). Ye shall know that I am Jehovah your God. 
The instruction of his people is a primary object with God. He has 
gifted them with reason, and he expects to be served with the under- 
standing and the will. This can be done only so far as they know 
him to be God, the Eternal and Almighty, to be Jehovah, the Creator 
and Upholder of all things, and to be their God, to whom they are 
reconciled through his pardoning, redeeming, and quickening mercy. 
It is manifest that every event in his gracious dealings with them is a 
step in the process of their spiritual training. This alone will explain 
the various preparatory steps in this miraculous interposition. He 
first allows the people to feel their need (i. 3); then he intimates his 
intention to Moses ; then Moses and Aaron admonish the people ; then 
Moses announces the promise of food ; then Moses directs Aaron to 
call the people before the Lord ; then the Lord, manifesting his pre&ence, 
recapitulates his message to Moses, and lastly performs his promise. 

13-21. The performance of the promise is now recorded. Quails, 
literally " the quail " in a collective sense, a well-known species of 
migrating bird, that passes the winter in inner Africa and the summer 
in the northern regions. These are brought in great numbers to the 
camp of Israel, when, being wearied with their long flight, they are 



EXODUS XVI. 13-15. 179 

easily taken and killed. The miracle consisted in bringing the quails 
at the stated time to the required place, and in sufficient numbers for 
the supply of a large host, and in announcing beforehand their arrival. 

Came up. Came up on the wing, and therefore made their appear- 
ance from a lower ground in the air. And filled the camp, alighted 
on the area occupied by the wide-spread host. The dew lay. Literally, 
th ere was a lying or layer of dew, a deposit on the surface from the 
surrounding atmosphere. We say a fall of dew. The former is the 
more exact figure. 

14. 15. The dew thai lay went up. A natural figure for the evap- 
oration of the dew that had fallen during the night. Something fine 
and crisp, fine as the rime on the ground. This indicates a small 
grain, scaled or hardened after the drying up of the moisture. The 
smailness or fineness of the grain is compared with that of the rime or 
hoar-frost on the ground. We shall have other qualities of the manna 
as we proceed (vs. 31). It is manna. The original words, xin ^ are 
generally rendered as in the margin of our authorized version, " What is 
this ? " But the former rendering appears to be demanded by the fol- 
lowing reasons : (1.) ;; What is this " is expressed by a different phrase, 
K"r^"iT^ , in the next sentence. The Masoretes favor this distinction, by 
pointing sin 'pa . not Sin":, as in Dan. iii. 15. (2.) The explanatory 
sentence, ' ; for they wist not what it was," is superfluous, if the latter 
meaning of sis '"0 be taken. For the question, " What is this ? " 
implies that they knew not what it was. The presence of this sentence, 
therefore, suggests another meaning for the previous words. (3.) The 
former meaning gives a significance to the explanatory clause. The 
people say one to another, in an inquiring way, " It is manna. " By a 
common law of analogy or conversational generalization they give it 
the name of a comparatively scanty product of nature, to which it bears 
a considerable resemblance in locality, color, form, and perhaps taste, 
though it differs in origin, season, quantity, and other properties. They 
do this in the ignorance of the moment. This is what is expressed 
by the explanatory clause, "for they wist not what it was." They had 
no name for a new product, and they take the common method of 
calling it by the name of that which most nearly resembled it. Moses 
does not reject the name ; but proceeds to explain the nature and origin 
of that which they had so named provisionally. It is the bread. Such 
is its nature. Which the Lord hath given you. Such it its origin. 



180 THE MANNA. 

The natural manna is gathered early in June, a month later than 
the present time, and in small quantity, not sufficient for the chief 
support of life. The supernatural manna was gathered every day, 
Sabbaths excepted, throughout the whole year, and in quantities 
sufficient for the main sustenance of a nation of at least one million 
six hundred thousand souls during a period of forty years. 

16-21. The manner of gathering the manna is here prescribed. 
Every man according to his eating, according to the number of his 
family. This is explained by the following words. An omer (see vs. 
36) to the poll for the number of your persons. This was the rate at 
which each gatherer was to aim. For them that are in his tent. The 
tent (Gen. iv. 20) is an awning or outside covering of any kind over 
the wooden poles or framework which formed the principal feature of 
the booth. The tent was older than the deluge, and the phrase, " them 
that are in his tent," indicates a man's family or company, whatever 
might be the covert under which they took shelter in the desert. It 
does not therefore determine that all or any were aerially possessed 
of fully-equipped tents of hair-canvas, but that in general each had a 
family or company with which he tabernacled as best he could in this 
temporary mode of life. 17, 18. And they gathered some more, some 
less. Every man endeavored to gather at least as much as would serve 
his need, but some were more successful than others in the unmeasured 
result. And he that gathered much had nothing over. If the grasping 
hand of covetousness or a more favorable ground occasioned a greater 
gathering by some than by others, yet was the omer filled for each, 
and neither more nor less. A potent argument to teach them, if they 
would learn, that all men are equal in the sight of our Heavenly 
Father. There was a miracle here, take it how we will ; and it would 
be the height of absurdity to meddle with the natural meaning of the 
words in order to give a simpler form to the miraculous act. He that 
distributed his bounty here could equalize each single gathering as 
easily as the collected whole with the ration allotted to each. 19-21. 
Let no man leave of it till the morning. Another mighty leveller for 
all the selfishness of pride. No store is to be accumulated. It was in 
vain that any one disobeyed this command. That which was reserved 
till the second day became putrid. This in itself was miraculous, as 
the natural manna kept for a considerable time. And when the sun 



EXODUS XVI. 22-27. 181 

waxed hot, it melted. The portion that was ungathered in this maimer 
disappeared. 

22-27. Not only the supply, but the manner of it, is miraculous. 
On five days a quantity sufficient for one day, on the sixth enough for 
two days, and on the seventh none whatever is found. All the riders 
of the assembly, These are the heads of tribes, and of fathers' houses 
(Num. iii. 24, 30, 35). Came and told Hoses. Moses had not com- 
municated the intimation that on the sixth day they would receive a 
double supply. The arrangement was a deviation from the law of 
nature, which knows nothing of a seventh day's rest. The phenom- 
enon, therefore, demanded an explanation. To-morrow is the rest of 
the holy Sabbath to the Lord. The word " rest " is here put first, 
because the thing to be noted is the cessation of labor on the morrow 
as a reason for the double supply on the sixth day. It does not 
appear that the rulers were unacquainted with the Sabbath. But they 
had no experience hitherto of a special provision on the Lord's part 
for its convenient observance. In the annual return of the ordinary 
harvest a store was laid up for the year from which they could supply 
themselves for the Sabbath. But now they were nourished from day 
to day. Hence the necessity of a double ration on the sixth day, if 
the Sabbath was to be duly kept. It is possible that the Sabbath was 
imperfectly observed, or altogether neglected, during the bondage of 
Israel in Egypt, though there is no positive indication of this in the 
text. That it should have been forgotten, however, is contrary to the 
traditionary customs of many other nations besides the Jews. Traces 
of the septenary division of time have been found among the Egyp- 
tians, Hindoos, Chinese, and Peruvians. From the first of these it is 
said (Dion Cassius) to have passed to the Greeks, Romans, and the 
Teutonic nations. If it has left its mark on these scattered Gentiles, 
much more must it have been remembered among the chosen people, 
who were so near the origin of mankind, and seem to have possessed 
a continued thread of well-authenticated tradition. All that remaineth 
vver, after partaking for the day, of the two omers which had been 
prepared for food in whatever manner they pleased. Lay up for you, 
ready for eating on the following day. Hence Moses says on the 
Sabbath (vs. 25), not "bake or seethe," but "eat it." 24. It did not 
&Hnk. That it should have become putrid the day after being cooked 



182 THE MANNA. 

is no new difficulty, when we are in the region of the miraculous. 25, 
26. Directions are now explicitly given regarding the days on which 
the manna was to be gathered. 27. Some of the people, from inad- 
vertence or ignorance of the directions given, make the experiment, 
and find the prophet's word good. 

28-31. The transgressors are now rebuked through Moses for their 
heedless disobedience. My commandments and my laws (see On 
Gen. xxvi. 5). The former probably refer to the special regulations 
concerning the manna; the latter to the standing institution of the 
Sabbath. 29. The Lord hath given you the Sabbath. There is in 
the previous passage no express giving of the Sabbath, but rather a 
tacit assumption that it has been already given. This is in accordance 
with its institution at the creation of man recorded in Gen. ii. 1-3. 
It is here to be noted that the Sabbath is a gift to man, who is doomed 
to labor in his fallen state (Gen. iii. 17-19). A periodical recurrence 
of relief from labor and leisure for fellowship with God and with one 
another is a precious boon of heaven to the toil-worn in body or mind. 
Abide ye every man in his place. Come not out for any business, such 
as gathering manna. They were at liberty to go abroad for any 
purpose accordant with the Sabbath, such as attendance on the holy 
convocation (Lev. xxiii. 3 ; Acts xv. 21). Even works of necessity or 
mercy, that cannot be put off till the next day, are not regarded as a 
real breach of the Sabbath (Matt. xii. 1-13 ; Mark ii. 23-28). There 
seems to have been no limit to the distance to be walked on the Sab- 
bath beyond that of convenience, leisure from business, and release 
from toil. The Rabbinical rule of later times, however, was that a 
Sabbath day's journey should consist of two thousand cubits, about 
five or six furlongs. This was imagined to be the distance of the 
remotest part of the camp from the tabernacle. It was the distance 
of the Mount of Olives from Jerusalem (Acts i. 12). 30. Rested, 
inap" 1 ] , kept the Sabbath, or day of rest. 

31. We have already seen that the manna from heaven (Ps. lxxviii. 
24, cv. 40) was like a fine grain, as small as the hoar-frost. We are 
now informed that it was like coriander seed in form, of a whitish 
color, and of the taste of a cake made with honey. It could be also 
baked or seethed ; and this is in accordance with the statement in 
Num. xi. 7, 8 : " And the manna was like coriander seed, and the 



EXODUS XVI. 31-36. 183 

color thereof as the color of bdellium. And the people went about 
and gathered, and ground it in the mill, or beat it in the mortar, and 
baked it in the pan, and made cakes of it ; and the taste of it was as 
the taste of oil cates." From the description given above, it will be 
apparent that the miraculous manna bore such a resemblance to the 
natural product so called, as to lead to the employment of a name 
common to both. But the natural manna differed from the superna't" 
ural in its chemical ingredients ; the former being of a gummy or 
resinous nature, and the latter containing a farinaceous element. 
Hence the latter could be ground and baked into bread or boiled into 
pottage, for which the former was only a condiment. The natural 
manna also could be kept for years ; the supernatural became putrid 
in a night. Other differences have been noted on verses 14, 15. The 
taste of the M cake made with honey " was probably much the same as 
that of the " oil cates." But the one may refer, as some think, to the 
taste of the raw and the other to that of the baked manna. The color 
of bdellium when fresh and pure was probably whitish. 

32-36. This great gift of bread from heaven to the chosen people 
during forty years in the wilderness was worthy to be had in perpetual 
remembrance. It was in itself a marvellous boon ; it taught the grand 
lesson of entire dependence upon the Almighty Father of all ; and it 
was a striking type of the bread of God, which cometh down from 
heaven, and giveth life unto the world. Hence the command to lay 
up an omer-full of the manna to be kept for the generations to come. 

33. A pot. The word in the original occurs only here, and probably 
denotes a more permanent vessel than a mere basket. In the Sept. 
we find orrdfjivov ^puo-ow, a golden jar, a rendering which is adopted in 
the Epistle to the Hebrews (ix. 4). Before the Lord. This is ex- 
plained in the next verse by the phrase, " before the testimony." This 
testimony of God to the great principles of morality was the law, 
written on the tables of stone, and deposited in the ark (xxv. 16), 
thence called the ark of the testimony. " Before the testimony," 
therefore, means in the ark of the testimony (Heb. ix. 4), whence, 
however, it had disappeared in the time of Solomon (1 Kings viii. 9). 

34. So Aaron laid it up. This act of Aaron must have been per- 
formed after the ark was made and the tables of stone were deposited 
in it. The record of it, though not written till after these events, is 



184 THE MANNA. 

appended here to complete all that is necessary to be told concerning 
the manna. 35. Ate manna forty years. We are told in Josh. v. 12 
that the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the 
new corn of the land, which was on the morrow after the passover. 
As the manna commenced on or after the fifteenth clay of the second 
month, and therefore a month after the passover in Egypt, the people 
ate of the manna forty years, wanting a month. Until they came to 
a land inhabited. In contrast with the wilderness, in which were only 
wanderers, and not settled inhabitants. This verse determines, in a 
general way, the place as well as the time of the ceasing of the manna, 
more widely in the phrase quoted, and more strictly in the words 
" until they went to the border of the land of Kenaan." There can 
be no doubt that the people had in most places, and especially when 
they had made the conquest of Persia, some ordinary supplies of food. 
But those who needed would still go out to gather, until the supply of 
the new corn of the land satisfied the demands of all. This verse was 
no doubt added when Moses was revising and completing his materials 
for Exodus, in the plains of Moab, by Jordan, near Jericho (Num. xxxvi. 
13), or in the valley over against Beth-peor (Deut. iii. 29). The 
sentence is evidently such as might be written by a prophet who was 
aware that the forty years of wilderness life were drawing to a close, 
and perceived the supply of manna waning to its end, according as the 
natural products of the land were approaching to a full satisfaction of 
the people's wants. 

36. The omer. This name of a measure seems to have gone out of 
use in the space of forty years. Moses, therefore, in the revising of the 
book of Exodus at the end of that period, takes occasion to add that 
the omer was the tenth part of an ephah. Josephus (Antiq. viii. 2. 11) 
assumes the bath or ephah to be equal to 72 xestai. Now, it was 
estimated by Bertheau that a bath or 

metretes = 12 choes = 8.6696 gallons, 

chous = 6 xestai = .7225 " 

sextary or xestes = 2 cotylae — .1204 " 
cotyla = .0602 " 

The omer would thus be .8669 gal., or about 7 pints. According 
to the Rabbins, however, a log was equal to the contents of six eggs ; 
and therefore a bath, or ephah, containing 72 logs, held, according to 



EXODUS XVII. 135 

the estimate of Thenius, 4.4286 gal., and consequently the omer .4428 
gal., or above 3 \ pints. Now, 3 pints of meal is sufficient, on an aver- 
age, for the daily support of each member of a family. As the manna, 
then, would be pure nutriment, without any considerable loss in the 
preparation, we must regard the Rabbinical estimate as a close approx- 
imation to the truth, and that of Josephus as an exaggeration. This 
author is not precise in his identifications ; as he makes the fourth part 
of a cab = xestes = .1204 gallons, 

cab = .4816 " 

6 cabs = seah == 2.8896 " 

3 seahs = bath = 8.2688 " 
His value is thus only approximate. But in Antiq. iii. 6. 6, the omer 
is made = 7 cotylae =.4214 gal., and therefore the bath = 4.214. 
This, we perceive, deviates much from his other estimates, and 
approaches very nearly to that of the Rabbins.' We subjoin a table 
of Hebrew measures of capacity : 

gal. qt. pint. 

Homer =10 ephahs or baths = 44 1 0.0 

Ephah = 3 seahs =10 omers = 4 1 1.4 

Seah = 6 cabs = 1 1 1.8 

Omer =01 1.54 

Bath = 6 hins = 4 1 1.4 

Hin = 12 logs = 2 1.9 

Log = 6 eggs = 0.5 



CHAP. XVII. — WATEE FROM THE EOCK. AMALEK SMITTEN. 

1. tPW'i Rephidim ; r. spread out, rest upon. Piel. support. 

2. *sa give ye, referring to Moses and Aaron. Some MSS., the 
Sam., Sept., Targ., and Vulg. have hwj, agreeing with Moses alone. 
It is an easier reading. 

6. n^h Horeb. Drought, waste. 

7. fi&D Massah, wetpatr/xos, temptation, na^hti Meribah, XoiSoprjais, 
chiding, strife. 

9. OTttSiFTi Jehoshua, Jehovah saves. See Num. xiii. 16. 
24 



IQQ WATER FROM THE ROCK. 

11. iT"*. 1*^ in both cases is the reading of the Sam., Sept., Targ., 
Syr., and Vulg. This also is an easier reading. 

12. "iin Chur, noble. ffiWfflg either firmness, the substantive for 
the adjective, or firm, the singular, not the plural, because Moses 
held up only one hand at a time. 

13. 3P3 write. ltt ttM has occured in Ex. v. 6, denoting a scribe or 
accountant. 

15. ^33 1 njST] Jehovah-nissi, ^e Lord m^ banner. 

16. i"H S3 throne of Jah. 33 is here supposed to be for N33, 
which is indeed the reading of the Sam. for these four letters. This 
meaning of the word is found in the Targ., Arab., Pers., and Yulg. 
The Sept. has iv xeipi Kpv^aia, evidently reading <*^&3. One MS. is 
said to have 03 , which is a favorite reading with many expositors. 
It is however without support, and besides affords no better sense 
than the common reading. 

XVII. 1. And all the assembly of the sons of Israel set out 
from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to 
the mouth of the Lord ; and they pitched in Rephidim ; and 
there was no water for the people to drink. 2. And the people 
chid with Moses, and said, Give us water to drink. And Mo- 
ses said unto them, Why chide ye with me ? Why tempt ye 
the Lord ? 3. And the people thirsted there for water, and 
the people murmured against Moses ; and they said, Where- 
fore is this that thou hast brought us out of Mizraim to kill 
me and my sons, and my cattle with thirst ? 4. And Moses 
cried unto the Lord, saying, What shall I do unto this people? 
They are almost ready to stone me. 5. And the Lord said 
unto Moses, Pass before the people, and take with thee of the 
elders of Israel ; and thy rod wherewith thou smotest the river 
take in thy hand, and go. 6. Behold, I stand before thee there 
upon the rock in Horeb ; and thou shalt smite the rock, and 
water shall come out of it, and the people shall drink. And 
Moses did so in the eyes of the elders of Israel. 7. And he 



EXODUS XVII. 1-7. 187 

called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of 
the chiding of the sons of Israel, and of their tempting the 
Lord, saying, Is the Lord in the midst of us or not ? ^f 28. 

8. Then came Amalek and fought with Israel in Rephidim. 
9. And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men and go 
out, fight with Amalek : to-morrow I will stand on the top of 
the hill, and the rod of God in my hand. 10. And Joshua did 
as Moses said to him, and fought with Amalek : and Moses, 
Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. 11. And it 
came to pass, when Moses held up his hand that Israel pre- 
vailed ; and when he let down his hand Amalek prevailed. 
12. And the hands of Moses were heavy, and they took a stone 
and put it under him, and he sat upon it : and Aaron and 
Hur stayed up his hands, the one on this side and the other on 
that side ; and his hands were steady until the going down of 
the sun. 13. And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people 
with the edge of the sword. ^f 29. 

14. And the Lord said unto Moses, Write this for a memo- 
rial in the book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua : for I 
will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under 
heaven. 15. And Moses built an altar, and called its name 
Jehovah-nissi. 16. And he said, Because a hand was upon 
the throne of Jah, the Lord will have war with Amalek from 
generation to generation. 17. ^[^[^[ 30. 

1-7. The striking of the rock in Horeb. All the assembly. The 
attention of the reader is still kept to the marshalled host. Set out. 
They had passed two Sabbaths, and the intervening week at the 
stations in the Wilderness of Sin. After their journeys. There may be 
here a passing allusion to the two stations, Dophkah and Alush, which, 
as they were included in the Wilderness of Sin, and were not the scenes 
of any new event of importance, are therefore omitted from the present 
narrative. According to the mouth of the Lord, who by the pillar of 



188 WATER FROM THE ROCK. 

cloud and fire undertook their guidance (xiii. 21, 22). Pitched in 
Rephidim. This is to be sought in the Wady Sheikh, which runs in 
the form of an arc around the north of that cluster of mountains to 
which the general name of Horeb appears to have been given. It 
was certainly arid and waste, as its name implies. Rephidim was a 
wide-spreading plain at the base of the mountain, fit for encampment, 
but destitute of water. It is placed with some probability on the 
northeast of the mountainous block. 2. Tlie people chid with Moses. 
They had probably endured the almost intolerable thirst for some time 
in silence, expecting that Moses would find means to extricate them 
out of this new difficulty, at length, impatient of delay, they break out 
into unmerited reproaches, as if he were trifling with their sufferings. 
Give us water. They evidently recognize the divine commission of 
Moses, and expect him to have interfered on their behalf before now, 
Why tempt ye the Lord? He reminds them that he was but an agent, 
and that the Lord alone was to determine the time and way of their 
deliverance. Against him therefore they were really murmuring. 3. 
And the people thirsted. Their distress became every moment more 
insufferable. To kill me. Each in his impatience begins to speak for 
himself, as he pines after the refreshing draught for himself, his 
household, and his flocks. 4. And Moses cried unto the Lord. The 
occasion for importunate supplication is come. Moses was in perplex- 
ity and danger. " It is only to wait a little and they will stone me." 
5. The Lord is not slow to answer. Pass before the people. Go on 
in advance of them. Take with thee of the elders of Israel, as concur- 
rents and witnesses of thy acts ; that no one may say that the Lord 
did not work by him, but that fountains were there from of old, 
(Rashi). And thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, wherewith 
he was now about to smite the rock for water. 6. Behold, 1 stand 
before thee there. The Lord was to be there, probably in the pillar of 
cloud to manifest his power. Upon the rock in Horeb. The mountain 
was towering on the right of the people. Toward this Moses was to 
approach till he reached " the rock," the projecting cliff which he was 
to strike. Rephidim was a day's march from Mount Sinai (xix. 1). 
This is sufficient to prove that the rock in Horeb was not the large 
boulder in the valley below Mount Sinai which tradition points out to 
the traveller. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders. And the 



EXODUS XVH. 8-13. 189 

Lord was there to give forth the reviving streams, even from the hard 
rock. It was there demonstrated that the Lord was indeed in the 
midst of them to make their bread and their water sure, and to re-affirm 
the heavenly mission of his servant. At this now blessed spot they 
abode for the remaining days of the week. 

8-13. Amalek smitten. Then came. The country of these nomades 
lay south of the Philistines (Gen. xiv. 7). They went therefore out 
of their own territory to assail the Israelites. As their pasture-grounds 
penetrated far into the land of Kenaan (Judg. v. 14, xii. 15), they 
would regard with a hostile feeling a people who were on the way 
to take possession of that country. With them, accordingly, first after 
the political independence of Israel was established, began the Gentile 
antagonism to the people of God (Num. xxiv. 20) to make its appear- 
ance. And fought with Israel. It appears from Deut. xxv. 17, 18, 
that this was an attack upon the rear of Israel when they were faint 
and weary. In Rephidim, a part of the great plain er-Ramleh, where 
there was space for a military encounter. 9. Joshua is here men- 
tioned for the first time. His original name was Hoshea (Num. xiii. 
8, 16), but Moses changed it to Joshua, partly, we may suppose, in 
allusion to the event now about to be recorded. He is the ninth in 
descent from Joseph, and of course the eighth from Ephraim (1 Chron. 
vii. 20-27). He is thus the representative of one of the most impor- 
tant tribes of Israel. Choose us out men. Israel was now to gird on 
his sword and contend for his national independence. This was 
evidently no flying raid of the Amalekites, but a war of conquest. 
To-morrow, the enemy awaits them in battle array. I will stand on 
the top of the hill. Moses, with the rod of wonder-working power, 
takes his station on the neighboring eminence (not "iFin but Fisn&tt), 
there to take his appropriate part in the approaching conflict. 10. 
Hur was the fourth in descent from Judah, and the grandfather of 
Bezaleel (xxxi. 2 ; 1 Chron. ii. 9-20). As he was the grandfather of 
a full-grown man, and a member of the distinguished tribe of Judah, he 
was the meet companion of Aaron in attendance upon Moses. 11, 12. 
Israel or Amalek prevails according as the hand of Moses is held up 
or let down. Accordingly Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands alter- 
nately, so that they were steady till sunset. The rod is not mentioned 
here. This is not a miraculous interposition, but an ordinary exercise 



190 AMALEK SMITTEN. 

of faith in God accompanying the use of means. The lifting up of 
the hand or hands is, among other things, a gesture in prayer (Lev. ix. 
22; Ps. xxviii. 2, lxiii. 4; 1 Tim. ii. 8). It is here, therefore, a figure 
for prayer. The continual holding up of the hands denotes persever- 
ance in prayer. Aaron and Hur joining in the upholding of Moses's 
hands present a striking emblem of common prayer. 13. There is 
power in this prayer of Moses. Joshua conquers. Amaleh and his 
people. The one field suffices to vanquish Amalek's army and his 
nation ; as they had put forth their whole might in this first effort. 
The next effort was not offensive, but defensive, and in alliance with 
the Kenaanites (Num. xiv. 45). 

14-16. The importance of the victory over Amalek is set forth. 
Write. Here for the first time this singularly interesting word occurs. 
It is implied, indeed, in the noun "book" (iBt>), which appears in 
Gen. v. 1, as well as here. It indicates that writing was now become 
so common that the word for it was used in no other sense. Tliis 
refers to the assault of Amalek, the victory over him, the manner in 
which it was obtained, and the purpose expressed in the close of the 
verse. This was the first encounter with the heathen; and every 
particular here enumerated was only a type and an earnest of what 
should take place in every future conflict between the children of 
repentance and the children of disobedience. For a memorial. Writ- 
ing is a necessary help to recollection when life is short and memory 
feeble. In the book. The article before this word indicates either that 
the book in question was well known, or that a book was then a well- 
known object. In the ears of Joshua, who was to be the leader of the 
people, and the conqueror of their enemies. There was special admo- 
nition and encouragement for him in the mode and issue of this battle. 
Blot out the remembrance of Amaleh. The fate of Amalek may be 
read in Deut. xxv. 19 ; 1 Sam. xv. 30 ; 2 Sam. i. 1, viii. 12, from which 
we learn that they were subdued partly by Saul and wholly by David, 
after which they are no more mentioned. Such will be the end of all 
God's adversaries. 15. An altar. This is the first altar the erection 
of which is on record, since the time of Jacob. It marks a new aspect 
in the affairs of the people of God. They have now asserted their 
independence, and, through the grace of God, gained the first victory 
over their enemies. This is an omen for all time to come. The erec- 



EXODUS XVIH. 191 

tion of an altar is always in Scripture a confession of the personal 
unworthiness of fallen man, of the assured hope of an atonement, and 
of humble and grateful reliance on the grace of God. Hence the 
grace of God in giving the victory, and the gratitude of the people in 
receiving it, here appropriately meet. Jehovah-nissi. The name of 
the altar is expressive of thanks for the past and trust for the future 
(Ps. xx. 5-7). 16. We have given a literal version of this obscure 
verse. The meaning turns upon the person to whom the word hand 
is referred. If it refer to God, the sentence is an oath, as in the Targ., 
Onk., and the Auth. Ver. But the form of oath is unusual, and the 
connection with the context is far from being obvious. If it refer to 
Moses (Bush) or to Israel (Keil) the meaning is, " because the hand 
of faith and prayer is toward the throne of God," etc. This has the 
advantage of reference to the context ; but the meaning here given to 
the preposition b? is unusual, and the first clause does not afford a good 
reason for the second. If the hand refer to Amalek (Kalisch), the 
sentence runs thus, "because his (Amalek's) hand was against the 
throne of Yah (the kingdom of God, which includes his people), etc." 
The meaning is here simple and easy ; the connection with what goes 
before is sufficiently plain; and the reason assigned for perpetual, war 
until Amalek be extirpated is intelligible and suitable. 



CHAP. XVIII. — JETHKO. 

2. d^n^q dismissal. 

4. ^iTsba Eliezer, God-help. 

6. ^?X : . The Sam., Sept., and Syr. have fiSfi . The sentence then 
runs, " And one said unto Moses, Behold," etc. 

18. >iiTi3S> an old form equal to intos. 

26. sioiiSttJ 1 ! an unusual form and pointing for lasiir . It seems to 
arise from the proximity of a pause falling on a very short word. 

XVIII. 1. And Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses's father- 
in-law, heard all that God had done for Moses, and for Israel 
his people ; for the Lord had brought Israel out of Mizraim. 



192 JETHRO. 

2. And Jethro, Moses's father-in-law, took Zipporah, Moses's 
wife, after he had sent her back : 3. And her two sons, of whom 
the name of the one was Ger shorn ; for he said, I have become 
a stranger in a foreign land ; 4. And the name of the other 
Eliezer ; for the God of my father was my help, and delivered 
me from the sword of Pharoh. 5. And Jethro, Moses's father- 
in-law, and his sons and his wife came unto Moses into the 
wilderness where he encamped at the Mount of God. 6. And 
he said unto Moses, I, thy father-in-law Jethro, come unto thee, 
and thy wife, and her two sons with her. 7. And Moses came 
out to meet his father-in-law, and bowed himself, and kissed 
him, and they asked each other of their welfare ; and they 
went into the tent. 8. And Moses told his father-in-law all 
that the Lord had done unto Pharoh and to Mizraim for the 
sake of Israel, all the travail that had come upon them by the 
way, and how the Lord delivered them. 9. And Jethro 
rejoiced over all the good which the Lord had done to Israel, 
whom he had delivered out of the hand of Mizraim. 10. And 
Jethro said, Blessed be the Lord who hath delivered you out 
of the hand of Mizraim, and out of the hand of Pharoh ; who 
hath delivered the people from under the hand of Mizraim. 
11. Now I know that the Lord is greater than all the gods, 
for he has prevailed in the thing wherein they dealt proudly 
with them. 12. And Jethro, Moses's father-in-law, took a 
burnt-offering and sacrifices for God ; and Aaron went, and all 
the elders of Israel, to eat bread with Moses's father-in-law 
before God. 

13. And' it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses sat to 
judge the people; and the people stood by Moses from the 
morning unto the evening. 14. And Moses's father-in-law saw 
all that he did to the people, and he said, What is this thing 
that thou doest to the people ? Why sittest thou thyself alone, 



exodus xvin. 193 

and all the people stand by thee from morning unto evening ? 
15. And Moses said unto his father-in-law, Because the people 
come unto me to inquire of God. 16. When they have a matter 
they come unto me, and I judge between one and another, and 
I make known the statutes of God and his laws. 17. And 
Moses's father-in-law said unto him, The thing that thou 
doest is not good. 18. Thou wilt surely wear away, thou and 
this people that is with thee : for this thing is too heavy for 
thee ; thou canst not do it thyself alone. 19. Now hearken to 
my voice, I will advise thee, and God shall be with thee ; be 
thou for the people before God, and bring thou the causes 
unto God. 20. And thou shalt teach them the statutes and 
the laws, and show them the way wherein they must walk, 
and the work that they must do. 21. And thou shalt provide 
out of all the people, able men, fearing God, men of truth, 
hating coveteousness, and place over them rulers of thousands, 
rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. 22. 
And they shall judge the people at all times ; and it shall be 
that every great matter they shall bring to thee, and every 
small matter they shall judge themselves : and thou shalt 
relieve thyself, and they shall bear with thee. 23. If thou do 
this thing and God command thee, then thou shalt be able to 
endure, and also all this people shall go to their place in peace. 
24. And Moses hearkened to the voice of his father-in-law, and 
did all that he had said. 25. And Moses chose able men out 
of all Israel, and made them heads over the people, rulers of 
thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of 
tens. 26. And they were to judge the people at all times ; 
the hard cause they were to bring to Moses, and every small 
matter to judge themselves. 27. And Moses let his father-in- 
law depart ; and he went his way unto his own place, ^f 31. 
25 



194 JETHRO'S VISIT TO MOSES. 

Moses had formerly led the flock of Jethro as far as " the mount of 
God in Horeb." As soon as he arrives at this point, therefore, he is 
in the neighborhood of Jethro, who accordingly pays him a visit, 
accompanied by Zipporah and her two sons. The chapter contains 
the reception of Jethro, and the advice he tenders to his son-in-law 
concerning the government of the people. It is probable, as we shall 
see (vs. 5), that this visit took place after the assembly had encamped 
before the mount. The record of this collateral occurrence is placed 
here, at a convenient pause, that it may not interfere with the main 
current of the narrative, (see on 1£}K*!1 Gen. i. 3). 

1-12. The arrival of Jethro. Heard all. The spread of intelligence 
is much more rapid among nomadic tribes than in a settled population. 
2. Took Zipporah. He received her when she retured from Moses ; 
but now he takes her to bring her back to him. After he had sent 
her back, H^n'^d. This word occurs twice elsewhere (1 Kings ix. 16 ; 
Micah i. 14). In the former passage it denotes a present to a daughter 
sent away in marriage ; in the latter it denotes a figurative dismissal. 
It is here applied to the dismissal of his wife and children, most 
probably when the youngest child was circumcised on the way to 
Egypt, and was therefore unable to proceed (see on iv. 26). 3, 4. 
Gershom, (see on ii. 22) . Eliezer. This is the second son indicated 
in iv. 20, 24. ^y+'z in or for my help. Moses had a grateful remem- 
brance of his deliverance from the sword of Pharoh. 5, 6. Encamped 
at the mount of God. " The mount of God " is that mount in Horeb 
on which the law was delivered. This we take to be an indication 
that Moses had left Rephidim, and was now encamping (r\i'n) within 
sight of Sinai. Hence the visit of Jethro takes place after the arrival 
of the people at the Wilderness of Sinai, (see on xix. 1). And he 
said unto Moses, by a messenger in advance. This is a frequent 
expansion of the meaning attached to this phrase (xii. 3, 21). 

7-12. The reception of Jethro. Moses came out to meet. He pays 
all honor to Jethro as his father-in-law, and as the priest of Midian. 
He naturally rehearses to him the wonders of the short period during 
which they had been separated. 9—11. Jethro gives expression to the 
joy he felt in the deliverance of Israel. Blessed be the Lord. Jethro 
here explicitly acknowledges Jehovah as God. He was no doubt 
acquainted by the tradition of his Hebrew fathers with the being and 



EXODUS xvin. 7-27. 195 

the mercy of God, and he might have learned the significant name 
Jehovah from Moses, if not before. The Lord is greater than all the 
gods. A man in Jethro's position could not be ignorant of the 
polytheism that had now resulted from the division of human interests 
and opinions. Yet his spontaneous confession may convey simply the 
conviction of the infinite pre-eminence of Jehovah. For he has pre- 
vailed, or showed himself greater, in the very thing in which the 
Egyptians dealt proudly with the Israelites. The authorized version 
gives precisely the same sense, though with a different application, of 
the word DrWsr. 12. Jethro gives a practical exhibition of his acknowl- 
edgment of the Lord by offering sacrifice. The burnt-offering is the 
completest symbol of the atonement for sin (Gen. viii. 20). The 
sacrifice being eaten partly by the worshipper expresses communion 
with God as the result of atonement. The common participation 
before God of the sacrifice is the emblem of the communion of the 
worshippers in the blessings of the divine favor. 

13-27. The counsel of Jethro concerning the administration of 
justice. On the morrow. The day after the sacrifice, which was 
offered on the day of or the day after Jethro's arrival. Moses sat. 
Sitting is the posture of the judge, standing that of those who come to 
receive judgment. From the morning unto the evening. During the 
whole of that part of the day assigned to public business. 14-16. 
Moses explains to Jethro the necessity of this constant sitting. To 
inquire of God, is to come to his minister or representative to obtain 
an answer to any inquiry which is beyond human solution. In the 
present case the object of the inquiry is a judicial decision in a dispute 
between man and man. In a theocracy this proceeds from God through 
his ministers. Hence to appeal to them is virtually to appeal to God 
(xxi. 6). And I make known. This was a process of instruction 
especially necessary for a new nation for which a code of jurisprudence 
had not yet been provided. At the same time it was not possible for 
one person to instil the principles of law into the hearts of all the 
people, much less to administer justice to a community of at least 
one million six hundred thousand individuals. The statutes of God 
and his laws (xii. 24, 49), his occasional decisions and edicts, and 
his general laws and principles of rectitude. 

17-23. The plan suggested by Jethro. He disapproves of the 



196 JETHKO'S VISIT TO MOSES. 

present practice of Moses, as too laborious and tedious. Thou wilt 
surely wear away. The causes that will arise among the people will 
occupy all thy time to the exclusion of needful leisure for recreation 
and for other duties. And the people that is with thee. They will be 
wearied in waiting for the decision of their litigations, which will be 
delayed in consequence of thy inability to determine them as fast as 
they arise. And this delay may tempt them to take the law into their 
own hands, and so anarchy and outrage may pave the way for their 
gradual annihilation. Thou canst not do it thyself alone. •Hence a 
division of the labor is necessary, that it may be done promptly and 
efficiently. 19, 20. And God shall be with thee, approving of thy 
course, and aiding thee in its execution. Jethro means that he should 
not proceed without the divine concurrence. Be thou for the people 
before God, between God and the people, to represent him to them, 
and their causes to him. Thou shalt teach them, expound the regula- 
tions and principles of civil and religious law. The way, the moral 
principle of their conduct. The work, the conduct which they are to 
pursue in the way Avhich the law directs. Moses is thus to be, under 
God, the great teacher of the people, the promulgator of law, and the 
director of its administration. 21, 22. Provide out of, look out among 
you. This was done by the people themselves proposing men to be 
approved and appointed by Moses, as he himself explains (Deut. i. 13, 
15), " Give ye wise men, and understanding, and known among your 
tribes, and I will make them rulers over you." " And I took," accepted 
at the hand of the people. Able men, having the requisite abilities for 
the office. This is the first qualification. Fearing God, men of piety. 
Men of truth, whose word may be trusted. Hating covetousness, that 
will not therefore be bribed to pronounce unjust decisions. An 
admirable choice and order of qualifications. Rulers of thousands. 
It has been calculated by the Talmudists, and even by Grotius, that 
according to this arrangement seventy-eight thousand six hundred 
judges would be required for six hundred thousand men. But we 
cannot suppose that the patriarchal rule, which is a law of nature, was 
to be superseded by this regulation. A father was still to be acknowl- 
edged as the governing head of his descendants during his life, especially 
when they dwelt with him in the same house or tent. And he is 
the unit intended in the thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens here 






EXODUS XVIII. 17-26. 197 

mentioned. Thus in Josh. vii. 16-24 we find Israel divided into tribes, 
the tribe of Judah into clans (rYinusSo ), the clan of Zarhi into men 
(a^nsa), individuals or units, of whom Achan was one. But Achan 
has sons and daughters and a tent, and is therefore the father of a 
house. Such a house, including children, might contain from five to 
fifty individuals. We may take twenty as a reasonable average of 
a grandfather's family. Ten such families would in that case amount 
to two hundred individuals, and ten such heads are the smallest number 
allowed by the Talmudists to constitute a synagogue. In a people of 
at least one million six hundred thousand there would thus be eight 
thousand rulers of tens, sixteen hundred rulers of fifties, eight hundred 
rulers of hundreds, and eighty rulers of thousands, and therefore ten 
thousand four hundred and eighty rulers in all. The number of appeals 
from rulers of tens would be proportionately greater than from the 
higher judges, because they were not much in rank above the fathers 
of houses ; and hence the rulers of fifties seem to be introduced to 
distribute the burden which would otherwise fall on the rulers of 
hundreds. Ever?/ great matter would come up to Moses either by 
appeal, where the parties were dissatisfied with the judgment of the 
inferior courts, or by reference, when these courts were deterred from 
judging by the difficulty of the cause. The latter is the mode expressly 
recognized in the text, and was probably, in the custom of the people, 
inclusive of the former. And God command thee. Jethro submits 
his proposal to the decision of God. Go to their place in peace. 
Prompt and impartial administration of justice will allay quarrels and 
beget that mutual confidence and good feeling which tends to peace. 
Jethro presents his modest proposal as a temporary expedient, until 
the people should arrive in a country where they might have settled 
institutions. 

24-26. And Moses hearkened to the voice of his father-in-law. This 
sentence throws light on the ways of Providence and on the character 
of Moses. The practical mind of Jethro, on the first glance at a great 
evil, is prompted to suggest an immediate remedy. Moses, on the 
other hand, being a man of a more educated mind and more deferential 
spirit, and aware that this evil has only lasted for a month or two, and 
will very soon be removed by the promulgation of a complete code of 
laws, waits in reverential patience, as is his wont, for the intimation of 



198 JETHRO'S VISIT TO MOSES. 

heaven to initiate the needed change. But the suggestion of Jethro 
he receives with that respectful attention which was then paid to age, 
acknowledges to be agreeable to the dictates of his own reason, and 
accepts as the mode presented in the dispensation of Providence for 
the removal of the present difficulty. The method of the providence 
of God, is evidently out of the given emergency to elicit the required 
measure, either by an immediate communication from heaven, or by a 
suggestion of human reason adequate to the occasion, and approved by 
God. Neither the disposition nor the past training of Moses inclined 
him to step before the Almighty in devising a remedy for ordinary 
difficulties ; and even this meekness was no small qualification for his 
high office. 25. And Moses chose. By a common figure he is said to 
do that which he caused to be done. The people chose at Moses's 
direction. 

27. And Moses let his father-in-law depart. The sacred writer, as 
usual, brings one line of events to a close before passing to another. 
"We are not bound, therefore, to conclude that Moses completed the 
introduction of his new measures for the administration of justice, and 
parted with his father-in-law before the series of events recorded in 
the following chapters had commenced. So far as the form of the 
narrative goes, we are at liberty to suppose that the interview with 
Jethro took place any time during the encampment at the " mount of 
God." The parallel passage (Deut. i. 9-18) referring to the institu- 
tion of civil magistrates, dates this measure with precisely the same 
latitude. On the other hand, we are not constrained to suppose these 
proceedings unfinished, if the time suffice for their accomplishment. 
Now the assembled host arrived at the Wilderness of Sin on the fif- 
teenth of the second month. If this was the first day of the week, 
and the whole of this week was spent at the three stations in this 
wilderness, eight days would remain for the journey to Rephidim, the 
smiting of the rock in Horeb, and the battle with Amalek. It appears 
from the following chapter that the journey to the Wilderness of Sinai 
took place on the first of the third month. It is possible that the 
interview with Jethro, and the tendering of his counsel, may have 
taken place on the second and third, and the carrying of this proposal 
into effect on the fourth and fifth. And it seems reasonable that Moses 
should be at once relieved of the burden of personally hearing and 



EXODUS XVIII. 27. 199 

deciding upon every case of litigation that might arise among the 
people. Jethro, however, may have taken leave for a time on the 
third day. It is most probable that, during the eleven months and 
twenty days of the sojourn of Israel in the Wilderness of Sinai, there 
were frequent interviews between Moses and his relatives by marriage, 
as they were in the immediate neighborhood. The passage in Num. 
x. 29-32, however, refers to the farewell and final parting between 
them, when the marshalled host set out for the Wilderness of Paran 
on their way to the promised land. 



SECTION IV.— THE LAWGIVING. 

XL THE MORAL LAW. — Ex. xix. - xx. 
CHAP. XIX. — PREPARATION FOR LAWGIVING. 

13. b:p the blower, horn, cornet; r. flow, blow, go. It is equal to 
b^fi yy%, the horn of blowing or sounding, and IBl'ttS, cornet. It 
differs from rTlXSH , the straight trumpet. It is probable that it was 
originally a ram's horn. The Rabbins and others affirm that bap 
signifies a ram. In Phoenician inscriptions it is said to have this 
meaning. 

XIX. 1. In the third month of the departure of the sons of 
Israel from the land of Mizraim, on this day were they come 
to the wilderness of Sinai. 2. And they set out from Rephi- 
dim and went to the wilderness of Sinai, and pitched in the 
wilderness ; and there Israel pitched before the mountain. 

3. And Moses went up unto God, and the Lord called unto 
him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the 
house of Jacob, and tell the sons of Israel. 4. Ye have seen 
what I did unto Mizraim, and how I bare you on eagle's wings, 
and brought you unto me. 5. And now if ye will obey my 
voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a pecu- 
liar treasure unto me above all the peoples : for all the earth 
is mine. 6. And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, 
and a holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt 
speak unto the sons of Israel. 7. And Moses went and called 
for the elders of the people, and laid before them all these 
words which the Lord commanded him. 8. And all the peo- 
ple answered together and said, All that the Lord hath spoken 



EXODUS XIX. 201 

we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto 
the Lord. 9. And the Lord said unto Moses, Lo, I come unto 
thee in the thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak 
with thee, and so believe thee forever. And Moses told the 
words of the people unto the Lord. 10. And the Lord said 
unto Moses, Go unto the people, and sanctify them to-day and 
to-morrow, and let them wash their clothes. 11. And be 
ready for the third day : for on the third day the Lord will 
come down in the sight of all the people upon mount Sinai. 
12. And thou shalt set bounds to the people round about, 
saying, Beware ye of going up to the mount, or touching the 
border of it : whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely 
put to death. 13. There shall not a hand touch him, but he 
shall be surely stoned or shot through ; whether beast or man, 
it shall not live : when the trumpet soundeth long, they shall 
go up to the mount. 14. And Moses went down from the 
mount unto the people : and he sanctified the people, and they 
washed their clothes. 15. And he said unto the people, Be 
ye ready for the third day : come not at your wives. 

16. And it came to pass on the third day, in the morning, 
that there were thunders and lightning, and a thick cloud 
upon the mount, and the sound of the trumpet very loud ; and 
all the people that were in the camp trembled. 17. And Mo- 
ses brought forth the people from the camp to meet with God ; 
and they stood at the nether part of the mount. 18. And 
Mount Sinai was all asmoke, because the Lord came down 
upon it in fire : and the smoke thereof went up as the smoke 
of a furnace, and the whole mount trembled greatly. 19. 
^nd when the sound of the trumpet waxed louder and louder, 
Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice. 20. And the 
Lord came down upon Mount Sinai, on the top of the mount ; 
and the Lord called Moses to the top of the mount, and Moses 
26 



202 ISRAEL ARRIVES AT SINAI. 

went up. 21. And the Lord said unto Moses, Go down, 
charge the people, lest they break through unto the Lord to 
gaze, and many of them perish. 22. And let the priests also, 
who come near to the Lord, sanctify themselves, lest the Lord 
break forth upon them. 23. And Moses said Unto the Lord, 
The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai ; for thou hast 
charged us, saying, Set bounds about the mount, and sanctify 
it. 24. And the Lord said unto him, Go, get thee down, and 
thou shalt come up, thou and Aaron with thee ; but let not 
the priests or the people break through to come up unto the 
Lord, lest he break forth upon them. 25. And Moses went 
down unto the people, and spake unto them. § 20. 

The exodus from Egypt is now past. That great event includes 
two concurring elements in the moral history of the people — redemp- 
tion and renovation. They are redeemed from the bondage of Egypt ; 
they are renovated in their feeling of allegiance to Jehovah, the God 
of heaven and earth. Their redemption appears in their deliverance 
from the plagues of Egypt, from the power of Egypt in the passage of 
the Red Sea, and from drought and famine in the miraculous supplies 
of manna, quails, and water with which they have been favored in the 
wilderness. Their renovation of conscience and will is discovered in 
their faith in Moses as the attested minister of Heaven, their unani- 
mous observance of the significant solemnity of the passover, and in 
their ready and thankful departure from Egypt at the instance of the 
Lord, who had guaranteed their deliverance. After the new birth 
comes new obedience to Heaven's eternal law. The co-existence, 
however, of the old nature with the new principle of spiritual life in 
the heart of the nation renders the promulgation of law necessary as 
well as seasonable. It is seasonable precisely when power to comply 
with it has been engendered in the soul. And it is necessary because 
the infant will and the awakened conscience need to be enlightened 
and guided by a code of laws in checking and rooting out the old 
habits of sin which have blinded the eyes, warped the original bent, 
and marred the moral beauty of the soul. Hence the legislation 



EXODUS XIX. 1, 2. 203 

comes in the train of the redemption and spiritual renewal of the 
nation. Hence the law is a doctrine (n^iin) for the information of the 
conscience and the training of the will. Hence it consists mainly of 
prohibitions for the repression of those habitual tendencies which linger 
in the renovated soul from the evil bias of the past. 

The lawgiving is accordingly a step in advance of the exodus. It 
is an end to which the exodus is the means. It stands forth, therefore, 
as the second prominent theme in the book before us. Like the exo- 
dus, it occupies six chapters, of which the first is a preface and the 
last a conclusion. In the preparatory chapter we have the arrival of 
the people at Mount Sinai, the directions for the purifying of the 
people, and the description of Mount Sinai when the Lord descended 
upon it. 

1, 2. The arrival at the place where the law was to be given. In 
the third month. As the term here employed denotes the new month, 
and a precise day, " on this day," is indicated, we may safely conclude 
that the first day of the month is intended. It is therefore now a 
month and a half since they left Egypt. Were they come to. This 
expression indicates that the events of the preceding chapter reached 
to a point of time beyond that which is now taken up as the main 
narrative (see on Gen. pp. 23, 34, 39). It is intended at the same 
time to date emphatically the day of their arrival. In the next verse 
the consecutive order of the narrative proceeds. 

Sinai. From the usage of Scripture, and especially of these chap- 
ters, it is plain that Sinai denotes a particular mountain, while Horeb 
denotes a block or range of mountains, with their intervening wadys, 
coinciding in a great measure with Jebel et-Tur. This granite mass 
includes the Wadys es-Sheikh, er-Rahah, and es-Sebayeh, with all 
their lesser outlets. The Wilderness of Sinai seems to be the plains and 
wadys in its immediate neighborhood, where cattle might browse or 
men encamp. We take Sinai to be that detached mass of which Jebel 
Musa is the highest point, and Ras Sufsafeh is the peak that rises 
almost perpendicularly over the Wady er-Rahah, for the following 
among other reasons : (1.) Josephus (Antiq. iii. 5, 1) says it is the 
highest of all the mountains in that country. Now Serbal, which Lep- 
sius takes to be the scene of the lawgiving, is only six thousand seven 
hundred and sixty feet high (Stanley, Map of Elevations in Sinai and 



204 ISRAEL ARRIVES AT SINAI. 

Palestine), while the cluster to which Sinai belongs is about nine 
thousand feet high. Jebel Musa, in particular, rises to seven thou- 
sand five hundred and sixty feet. (2.) There are the Wadys er-Rahah, 
es-Sheikh, and, according to Laborde (Comment, p. 108) and F. A. 
Strauss (Sinai, p. 134), es-Sebayeh, in the vicinity of Jebel Musa, 
which are amply sufficient for the encampment of a large host. Rob- 
inson (Biblical Researches, i. p. 140) measured across the water-shed 
of er-Rahah, and found it to be nine hundred yards, while the distance 
from the foot of the mountain was two thousand three hundred and 
thirty three yards. The northern slope of the plain he judged to be 
somewhat less than a mile in length, by one third of a mile in breadth. 
The whole plain he estimates at two miles long, and from a third to 
two thirds of a mile broad. " This space is nearly doubled by the 
recess to the west and the Wady es-Sheikh. " Here, then, is an open 
space of about two square miles. Of the Plain es-Sebayeh Strauss 
reports that the side on which the Wady es-Sebayeh enters the plain 
is fourteen hundred feet in breadth, and at the southwestern foot of 
the mountain eighteen hundred feet ; that the latter is the breadth at 
its central part, and its length from east to west is twelve thousand 
feet ; and that towards the south it rises very gradually, and even the 
mountains which bound it on the south have a gentle slope. This 
plain is therefore about a square mile in area. It is acknowledged 
that there are no such open spaces in the vicinity of Serbal. (3.) 
The way to Jebel Musa is much more open for a large host than that 
to or from Serbal. (4.) The stations before and after the former can 
be more readily accounted for than before and after the latter. On 
this point we can only refer to Robinson. (5.) The tradition is in 
favor of Jebel Musa. This is unquestioned up to the time of Justin- 
ian, who founded a church on one of the wadys of Sinai in 527 B.C., 
according to Procopius. Before this period, however, it is contended 
by Lepsius and others that the tradition was in favor of Mount Serbal, 
on the supposed authority of Eusebius, Jerome, and Cosmas Indicople- 
ustes. But Eusebius, according to the rendering of Jerome (De situ 
et nom. Heb.) thus describes Horeb — Choreb mons Dei in regione 
Madian juxta montem Sina super Arabiam in deserto. (Cui jungitur 
mons et desertum Saracenorum, quod vocatur Paran. Mihi autem 
videtur, quod duplici nomine idem mons nunc Sinai nunc Choreb 



EXODUS XIX. 1, 2. 205 

vocetur). From this passage it is evident that Eusebius places Horeb 
in Midian, while Serbal belonged to Amalek, or at least not to Midian. 
And Jerome regards Paran, the mountain of the Saracens, or, as he 
explains, the Ishmaelites, as adjoining the desert in which Horeb was 
situated. Xow mount Paran is in Jerome's estimation either Serbal, 
or it is not. If it be, then Sinai and Horeb are different from it. If 
it be not, then Eusebius and Jerome say nothing whatever of Serbal. 
These authors (on Faran) also report that the children of Israel 
marched through Paran when they left Sinai, and that Pharan is three 
days' journey from Ailah or Elath. Serbal, therefore, if it were 
Paran, could not be identical with Sinai. But it cannot be the same 
with Paran, as it is about seventy-five miles from Ailah, which 
would be at least four days' journey. They also record (Baphidim) 
that Rephidim is beside Horeb, and near Paran ; a statement which, 
after the preceding notices, implies only that it lay between the two, 
and by no means that the two are identical. Cosmas (Topogr. Christ. 
lib. V.) writes, Etra 7rdX.w 7rapevej3aXov eh Pa^tStv, «s tt/v vvu Xeyojxevqv 
<£>apdv. This merely intimates that Rephidim was in the region then 
called Pharan. Hence, he says, Moses proceeds to Mount Horeb, 
which is in the Sinaic (range) about six miles from Pharan (eU Xcop^/3 
to opos ? TovrecTTLv, ev T(3 2ivcu<i> eyyvs ovn ttjs Qapav us d.7ro fuXxtov e£). 
The present ruins of the town Feiran are about sixteen miles from 
Jebel Musa, and about six miles from the nearest point of the granitic 
block to which it belongs, while it cannot properly be said to be any 
distance from Serbal, at the foot of which it lies. Cosmas regards 
Horeb as a part of the Sinaic cluster of hills, and hence he speaks 
loosely of the inscriptions, which he says are found 191 all the stations 
of the Israelites, as existing in the desert of the Sinaic range (eV Ikuvt] 
ttj Iprjjxijj tov "2,wcuov opovs ev 7ra<xai9 Kara/rca'crecTi) . TVe may here 
observe, indeed, that these inscriptions are found to be due, not to the 
Israelites or the Christians, but to the inhabitants, or the pilgrims of & 
heathen superstition, and therefore afford no ground for determining 
the mount of the law. (See Beer, Inscr. Vet. ; Credner, Heidelb. 
Jahrb. 1841. p. 980; Fr. Tuch, Versucheiner Erklarung von 21 Sin. 
Inschr. ; Kurtz on the Covenant, v. hi. p. 61). The fact then seems 
to be that these three authors have been misunderstood, and are 
really in harmony with the general tradition, indicated even in the 
name Jebel Musa, the mount of Moses. 



206 ISRAEL ARRIVES AT SINAI. 

2. And they set out from Rephidim. As the previous verse looks 
back to the events of the foregoing chapter, so this verse looks forward 
to the continuance of the narrative from chap. xvii. Then we were 
at Rephidim, and now we depart from it. The Wilderness of Sinai is 
a phrase comprehensive of the mount of the lawgiving, and the 
surrounding desert. It seems to be co-extensive with Horeb, the 
central granitic block of mountain and glen now called Jebel et-Tur. 
Before the mountain. This expression signifies over against, or within 
sight of it, but not necessarily close by or contiguous to the mountain. 
We may imagine the main body of the encampment to be in the Wady 
es-Sheikh, and its wings or straggling outskirts in the adjacent glens, 
partly it may be in the Plain es-Sebayeh, and generally within view 
of some part of Sinai. 

3-15. The directions for the preparation of the people. And Moses 
went up unto God. The pillar of cloud now rested on Mount Sinai, 
and was conspicuous before the eyes of all the people. The going up 
of Moses unto God means, not that he ascended the mountain, which 
is not here asserted, but that he drew nigh to God in the customary 
way. And as the Lord now manifested himself on a mountain-top, 
the approach of Moses was an ascent, even though he only reached the 
base. This interpretation of the words is manifest from the following 
sentence: "And the Lord called unto him out of the mountain" 
This implies that Moses was not on the mountain, but at such a 
distance from the Divine presence as to warrant the word " called " 
instead of " spake." 

3-6. The words of the Lord here contain a tendering again of his 
covenant to the people, for formal and final acceptance. They indicate, 
first, the party who are to enter into covenant with God. The " house 
of Jacob " is the parallel of the " sons of Israel," the former, however, 
pointing to their natural, the latter to their spiritual relations, (see 
Gen. xxxii. 23-33). Secondly, the keeping of the covenant on God's 
part is put forward in a short and striking appeal to the people. Ye 
have seen. This was a matter of personal experience with them. 
What I did in Mizraim. The eleven manifestations of his power on 
their behalf in that country. And how I bare you on eagle's wings. 
In the twelfth miracle, at the Red Sea, he delivered them from the 
perils of the surrounding waters and the pursuing Egyptians, with as 



EXODUS XIX. 2-6. 207 

much care as the eagle takes in teaching its nestlings to make the first 
essay in flight among the beetling heights where it has its abode (Deut. 
xxxii. 11). The parent bird, it is said, sweeps gently past the young 
ones perched on a ledge of rock, and when one, venturing to follow, 
begins to sink with drooping wing, glides underneath, and bears it 
aloft again (Duns, Biblical Natural Science, ii. 46). This beautiful 
figure strikingly illustrates the patient tenderness with which the Lord 
labored to train his people for the escape from Egypt, and guarded 
them from the hazards of the way. And brought you unto me, brought 
you home to adoption and inheritance with your God and Father. 
Thirdly, the acceptance of the covenant is lovingly proposed to the 
people. If ye will obey, obey my voice. The repetition is emphatic, 
"if ye obey me promptly and heartily." And keep my covenant, the 
parallel of the previous clause ; " be faithful to me, as I have been to 
you " ; a touching appeal that wins a ready assent from a true heart. 
Lastly, comes the promise in new and expressive terms. It contains 
the three elements of salvation, appropriation, propitiation, and sancti- 
fication. Here for the first time occur three remarkable phrases, which 
become household words in the church. They throw a new light 
on the privilege and responsibility of the believer. (1.) A peculiar 
treasure unto me. To belong to God is an inestimable blessing. How 
much more to be his in a special sense above all others, Xaos 7repiovaLos, 
a peculiar people ! For all the earth is mine. This is to explain the 
phrase " above all peoples." All the inhabitants of the earth belong 
to God by right of creation and general benefaction ; but ye belong 
to him, over and above all this, by special grace and covenant ; and 
out of his free grace flows to you all that is comprised in remission, 
redemption, and regeneration. This part of the promise is therefore 
a comprehensive summary of all the blessings of salvation. (2.) A 
kingdom of priests. This is a pregnant sentence. It presupposes the 
people to be themselves the objects of priestly intercession and royal 
protection. It expressly elevates them into the dignity and authority 
of performing priestly functions, and dispensing royal favors to others. 
" A kingdom of priests " the Septuagint renders by fiaaikeiov teparcv/xa, 
a priesthood of kings. This is sufficient to show that a kingdom was 
here understood to be a community of persons invested with the 
powers of sovereignty, such as commanding, judging, defending, punish- 



208 ISRAEL ARRIVES AT SINAI. 

ing, and rewarding, and bound to exercise them, under God, for the 
good of mankind. The benignity of their sway is indicated by the 
facts that they are to be priests as well as kings. They find mankind 
under the ban of disobedience, the doom of death. Their office calls 
them to make atonement for the sins of the world, intercede for the 
returning penitent, and reconcile him to God. This function of 
sublime beneficence involves questions of the deepest import in the 
salvation of mankind, which do not meet their full solution until we 
approach the end of the volume of inspiration. Who can indepen- 
dently mediate between God and man ? What can be an all-sufficient 
propitiation for sin? We abstain from anticipating the answer to 
these questions, which does not belong to the interpreter, and is 
familiar to every reader of the New Testament. Meanwhile, we 
contemplate with profound admiration the nation that has a mission to 
discharge these benign functions, and a history pregnant with a great 
king, priest, and sacrifice that will be able to accomplish the salvation 
of the soul. 3. A holy nation. Along with a free pardon and an all- 
prevalent intercession, the third requisite for salvation is a sanctified 
nature. But this is introduced here not merely as an element of their 
own salvation, but as a qualification for that high function of reigning 
and reconciling which they are to exercise for the salvation of the 
world. There is a beautiful unity given to this ideal when we regard 
Israel as the son, the first-born of God (Ex. iv. 22). This son is the 
king and priest, the holy one of the present passage. This collective 
or national Israel contains within its bosom the individual and actual 
Son of God, of which it is the type in its regal and sacerdotal dignity, 
as it is the emblem of the church in its peace and purity. Thus God 
sets before his chosen people a new ideal, which is to be represented 
for their instruction in the typical institutions of the ceremonial law. 
It is to have a twofold realization ; on the one hand in the grateful 
reception of salvation from age to age by a growing number, until at 
length the whole of mankind are gathered into this kingdom ; and on 
the other hand in the gracious dispensing of this salvation until the 
Messiah have come once to make atonement for sin, and again to bring 
in the new heavens and the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. 
Tliese are the words which thou shalt speak unto the sons of Israel. 
These pregnant words are to take root in the hearts of the people, 
and bear fruit in all future 



EXODUS XIX. 7-13. 209 

7, 8. The consent of the people to the covenant is warm and 
prompt. Moses went and called for the elders of the people. Here 
we have the usual order of communication with the people. The 
elders are the representatives of the people, who convey to them the 
message of the Lord by Moses, and act as their spokesmen in replying 
to it (xii. 21). And all the people answered together. They gave a 
unanimous response. All that the Lord hath spoken we will do. They 
freely close with the gracious terms of the covenant. Moses reports 
their favorable answer to the Lord. 

9-13. The directions to the people to sanctify themselves, and keep 
at a distance from the mountain. Lo I come unto thee. This is the 
usual phrase for an intended action. In the thick cloud, in which my 
presence is usually manifested. That the people may hear when I 
speak with thee. The Lord does not demand confidence in his mes- 
senger and minister without giving abundant evidence of his commission. 
He had before given the signs of the rod turned into a serpent, and 
the hand changed from soundness to leprosy, and again to soundness ; 
but these were exhibited before the elders as the representatives of the 
people (Ex. iv. 29-31). He had also wrought the miracles of the 
deliverance from Egypt by the hand or the word of Moses ; but many 
of these were not under the eye of the people. But now he will answer 
Moses in the audience of all the people, that they may believe him for- 
ever. The Lord knew the inconstancy of the people, and therefore 
condescends to give them a universal and personal attestation to the 
authority of his prophet and delegate. Forever, without interruption. 
The words of the people. This was the proper plan for introducing 
the formal and unanimous assent of the people to the covenant of the 
Lord. 10. Sanctify them to-day and to-morrow. These days were 
supposed to be, according to tradition, the fourth and fifth of the third 
month. It is probable that the fifth was the Sabbath, or closing day of 
the seven weeks after the passover. This rests on the twofold assump- 
tion that the 15th of Nisan coincided with the weekly Sabbath, and 
that the first month contained twenty-nine, and the second thirty days. 
The " sanctifying " consisted in washing their clothes and abstaining 
from conjugal intercourse (v. 15 ; Lev. xv. 18). These serve for the 
outward form of sanctification in the absence of any ceremonial 
enactment. 11. And be ready for the third day. According to the 



210 PREPARATION FOR THE LAWGIVING. 

supposition already mentioned, the sixth of the third month would be 
the fiftieth day after the Sabbath in the seven days of the feast of 
unleavened bread. We know that this fiftieth day was afterward one 
of the three great annual festivals of Israel ; and as the other two had 
special reference to momentous events in the history of the people, the 
feast of weeks may have had reference to the giving of the law. 
This affords an additional argument in favor of the fiftieth day being 
that of the lawgiving. 12. Set bounds to the people. These bounds 
were at some distance from the base of the mountain. Beware ye of 
going up to the mount. This forbids not merely ascending the side, 
but going up to the foot of the mount. Or touching the border. 
They were not to pass the bounds marked out by Moses, or approach 
the border or skirt of the mount. There shall not a hand touch him, 
who transgresses the bounds and touches the mount. No one shall 
cross the bounds prescribed in order to drag him back or punish his 
presumption. He shall only from a distance be stoned or shot through. 
Whether man or beast. The owner is punished for his carelessness by 
the loss of his beast. But, even apart from this consideration, the 
awful sanctity of the divine presence is not to be violated by any 
unseemly intrusion. When the trumpet soundeth long. When the 
cornet gives a long and swelling note, they shall go up to the mount. 
As we are said to go up to the capital of a country, so here they go up 
to the mount, when they draw nigh to it without either ascending it 
or touching its skirts. " They " (HEft) is emphatic in the original, 
and refers to the people in contrast with Moses, who was authorized to 
come into contact with the mountain. At the sounding of the trumpet 
they are to approach to the boundaries that have been marked out ; 
but they are on no account and at no time to proceed farther. 14, 15. 
And Moses went down from the mount. He had drawn nigh, but not 
necessarily ascended to the summit, to hold converse with God. 
Sanctified the people, gave the necessary orders for their sanctification. 
Gome not at your wives. See vs. 10 and Lev. xv. 18. 

16-25. The descent of the Lord on Mount Sinai. A thick cloud. 
A heavy, dark mass of clouds. In the camp, in view of, but at a 
considerable distance from, the mountain. We do not deem it neces- 
sary to determine further than the text warrants, even with all the 
light that modern travellers have cast upon the locality, the precise 



EXODUS XIX. 16-25. 211 

spot in which the people were encamped. 17. And Moses brought 
forth the people. On the given signal (vs. 13), namely, the long and 
swelling blast of the trumpet, Moses leads forward the trembling 
people to hear the giving of the law. We must here bear in mind 
that Moses issued his commands, as the general of a great army, by 
means of the elders or acknowledged leaders of the people (vs. 17). 
Tliey stood at the nether part, or foot of the mountain, outside of the 
barrier which Moses had erected to prevent intrusion. A scene of 
ineffable grandeur now presented itself before them. 18. All asmoke. 
The disengaged and partly unconsumed matter arises, and envelopes, 
as usual, the fire in which the Lord descends. The whole mountain 
trembled greatly with the reverberations of the thunder. 19. The 
trumpet sound waxed louder and louder, as the people were gathering 
into their appointed station before the mount. The origin of this 
sound we leave, as the text does, undetermined. On the sudden 
silence which followed this awful trumpet blast, 3Ioses spake, and God 
answered him by a voice, by an audible and articulate form of words. 
This is the fulfilment of the promise made in vs. 9. TVTiat were the 
words uttered on this sublime occasion we cannot venture to determine. 
The statement may refer to, or at least include, the whole of the 
following communications so far as they were audible to the people. 
This is favored by the discernible pause which the narrative here 
makes. The recognition of this pause gives point and emphasis to the 
present statement, and imparts a solemn stateliness to the progress of 
the narrative. 

20-25. And the Lord came down. This sublime event has been a^ 
yet only incidentally indicated to account for ("illJx h 3S? v. 18) the 
smoking of Mount Sinai. It now comes forward in a direct statement 
with the precise intimation that the Lord descended on the top of the 
mount. He now called to Moses (TWnV) to go up to the top of the 
mount. Here for the first time we conceive Moses proceeded farther 
than the foot of the mountain, and advanced some distance on its 
slopes, without however reaching, or even approaching, the actual 
summit. It is only asserted that Moses went up, without adding how 
far. 21. Go doivn, charge the people. We may conceive that the 
people from the camp were pressing forward under the direction of 
their leaders, and that there was some danger that the front ranks of 



212 PREPARATION FOR THE LAWGIVING. 

this multitudinous host should be urged over the barriers that had 
been set to the people. Without for a moment imagining that the 
women and children were all within the valleys immediately around 
the mount, we can easily understand that the vast mass of deeply- 
agitated men would need the reiterated directions of their supreme 
commander to prevent any involuntary intrusion from the pressure in 
the rear. In these circumstances the Lord mercifully sends down 
Moses to charge the people, lest they break through the boundaries, 
gaze upon that which no eye is to behold, and many of them perish. 
22. Tlie priests also. We know that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob 
erected altars and offered sacrifices to the Lord, and that Moses 
informed Pharoh that Israel was commanded to go three days' journey 
into the wilderness to sacrifice unto the Lord. The presumption is, 
that there were some among them who were appointed to act as priests. 
Every head of a family killed the first paschal lamb for his own 
household, thereby practically evincing that the people were all kings 
and priests unto God. And we read (xxiv. 5) before the appoint- 
ment of Aaron and his sons, that " Moses sent young men of the sons 
of Israel who offered burnt-offerings." Here we perceive that the 
nation was not without sacred officers who discharged the functions 
and were entitled to the name of priests. Who they were we do not 
learn from the narrative, probably because their service at the altar 
was merely temporary, until Aaron should be called to the priesthood. 
Who come near to the Lord to intercede for the people. Sanctify 
themselves, keep themselves apart outside of the boundary, observing 
the same rules as the people. These occasional priests have no privi- 
leges beyond the rest of Israel, who are all priests unto God. 23. 
Moses here intimates that the people cannot touch the mountain on 
account of the bounds by which it is separated and sanctified. 24. 
But the Lord directs him to go down, and prevent the people and the 
priests, who had not yet got any special charge, from breaking through 
the barrier. It is intimated that Moses and Aaron are to come up to 
the mount. But this seems not to have taken place until a second 
intimation of the proper time is given (xxiv. 1). 25. Moses accord- 
ingly goes down, and reiterates the charge to the people and the 
priests. 



EXODUS XX. 213 



CHAP. XX. — THE MORAL LAW, AND THE ALTAR. 

2-17. The reader of the original will observe that these verses are 
provided with a double accentuation, the one referring to the verses, 
the other to the commandments, and called the lower and upper accent. 
Where only one accent stands, the two coincide. "Where a principal 
pause of the one concurs with a minor pause of the other, a double 
vocalization may occur, the short vowel being lengthened by the one 
accent and not by the other. For the same cause a letter of double 
power at the beginning of a word is read as a semi-vowel with the 
one accentuation, and as a mute with the other. In some copies, vs. 
13, 14, 15, are included in one. S is found at the end of the seventh 
verse, indicating the primary division of the Decalogue. is found 
at the end of vs. 6, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, and after the first clause of 
vs. 17, marking the subdivisions. This is plainly the primary form 
of the Decalogue. The deviations of the copy in Deut. v. will be best 
considered there. In some copies of the Sept. vs. 13, 14, 15, stand 
in the order 14, 15, 13. 

9. •"DX^'a work, business, ministry ; r. un. employ. It is more com- 
prehensive than FHhs labor, service, bond-service', r. to labor, till the 
ground, serve. 

12. After frqrepa crov, the Sept. has Iva eu crot yivrjrai, /cat, corres- 
ponding with a similar clause in Deut. v. 1 6. 

17. At the end of this verse the Sam. Pent, has a long passage 
agreeing mostly with Deut. xxvii. 2-7. It is not found in Onk. or 
the Sept. 

19. The Sam. Pent, here omits nsrai. WB3 hfitf im and inserts 
a passage contained in Deut. v. 21-24. It is not followed, however, 
by Onk. or the Sept. 

XX. 1. And God spake all these words, saying, § 21. 

2. I am the Loed thy God, who have brought thee out of 
the land of Mizraim, out of the house of bondage. 

8. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. 

4. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any 
likeness of anything that is in the heaven above, or that is in 



214 THE MORAL LAW. 

the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 
5. Thou shalt not bow down to them, nor serve them: for I 
the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of 
the fathers upon the sons, upon the third and upon the fourth 
generation of them that hate me ; 6. And showing mercy 
unto thousands of them that love me and keep my command- 
ments. § 22. 

7. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in 
vain ; for the Lord will not acquit him that taketh his name 
in vain. ^f 32. 

8. Remember the Sabbath-day to hallow it. 9. Six days 
shalt thou labor, and do all thy work. But the seventh day is 
a Sabbath to the Lord thy God : in it thou shalt not do any 
work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, 
nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is 
within thy gates : 11. For in six days the Lord made the heaven 
and the earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested the 
seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day, 
and hallowed it. § 23. 

12. Honor thy father and thy mother ; that thy days may 
be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth 
thee. § 24. 

13. Thou shalt not kill. § 25. 

14. Thou shalt not commit adultery. § 26. 

15. Thou shalt not steal. § 2T. 

16. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neigh- 
bor. § 28. 

17. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house ; § 29. Thou 
shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his man-servant, nor 
his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is 
thy neighbor's § 30. 

18. And all the people saw the thunderings, and the light- 



EXODUS XX. 215 

nings, and the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain 
smoking: and when the people saw it, they drew back and 
stood afar off. 19. And they said unto Moses, Speak thou 
with us, and we will hear ; but let not God speak with us, lest 
we die. 20. And Moses said unto the people, Fear not ; for 
God is come to prove you ; and that his fear may be before 
you, that ye sin not. 21. And the people stood afar off: and 
Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was. § 31. 
22. And the Lord said unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say 
unto the sons of Israel, Ye have seen that I have spoken with 
you from heaven. 23. Ye shall not make with me any idol ; 
gods of silver or gods of gold shall ye not make unto you. 
24. An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me, and thou 
shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt-offerings, and thy peace-offer- 
ings, thy sheep and thine oxen : in every place where I record 
my name I will come unto thee and bless thee. 25. And if 
thou make me an altar of stones, thou shalt not build them 
with hewing ; for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou dost 
pollute it. 26. And thou shalt not go up by steps unto mine 
altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon. 

is. irnrnr 33- 

The chapters xx.-xxiii. contain that code of laws which is called 
the book of the covenant (xxiv. 7) It is clearly distinguishable into 
two parts — the general principles of morality common to all man- 
kind, and the special enactments pertaining to the people of God. 
The former are called " the words of the Lord, " which he spake with 
an audible voice, and wrote upon the two tables of stone (xxiv. 3, xx. 
1, xxiv. 12). In reference to their number, they are called the ten 
words or commandments (xxxiv. 28). The latter are described as 
the "judgments, " or determinations of right between man and man. 
These are communicated to Moses, by whom they are delivered to the 
people by word of mouth, and also in writing for their permanent 
guidance. The ten commandments, with certain arrangements prelim- 
inary to the special legislation, are contained in the present chapter. 



216 THE MOEAL LAW. 

1-17. The Decalogue. The Masoretic mark for an open section 
at the end of the seventh verse, indicates the primary division of this 
grand compend of law in the estimation of these venerable annotators. 
If the principle of division be the essence of the Deity, this distribu- 
tion is undoubtedly correct. The previous paragraph, referring to the 
unity, spirituality, and deity of God, which belong to the essence of 
his nature, is of universal and eternal moment, and is thus fundament- 
ally distinguished from the following one regarding the Sabbath and 
the relative duties of men, which are incidental to that effect of Ms 
creative action to which man belongs. The former of these paragraphs 
the authors of the Massorah subdivide into two close sections, and 
the latter into eight. The first commandment thus apparently includes 
verses 2-6, on the principle that polytheism and idolatry are identi- 
cal, or two modes of apostasy from the one true God. But in fact, 
these two are not less distinct from one another than each of them is 
from that mode of degrading God which is noted in the seventh verse. 
The true principle is, that there are three ways of dishonoring God, or 
robbing him of his glory — the first referring to his unity, the second 
to his spirituality, and the third to his deity. Hence vs. 2, 3 must be 
regarded as the first commandment ; vs. 4-6 as the second ; and vs. 7 
as the third. The Talmud, the Targum of Johnathan, several Jewish 
Rabbis, Peter Martyr, and others, hold vs. 2 to be the first command- 
ment. But the second and third verses are plainly distinguished 
as the positive and negative sides of the one commandment. The 
propriety of this threefold subdivision is further demonstrated, by 
its obviating the necessity of subdividing the seventeenth verse into 
two commandments, in order to make up the number ten. If these 
two errors of subdivision be corrected, " the ten words " are divided 
into three and seven on a tenable and intelligible principle, — the three 
referring to the immutable essence of God, the seven originally to 
man, the intelligent part of the six days' creation, and ultimately to 
the people whom God has taken for his peculiar treasure. It is well 
known that three has also a typical or mystical reference to God, and 
seven to the church. If the two tables of stone were to contain, as 
nearly as possible, the same quantity of matter without breaking up a 
commandment, the Masoretic division makes the nearest approach to 
this arrangement, the numbers of letters in each portion being respect- 



EXODUS XX. 1-17. 217 

ively (errors excepted) two hundred and seventy-seven and three 
hundred and forty-three ; whereas, if the commandment concerning the 
Sabbath, containing two hundred and three letters, were transferred 
to the former side, the numbers would be four hundred and eighty and 
one hundred and forty. 

The Masoretic division, however, though it have a basis in the 
structure of the text, is founded on the idea of God, and not on the 
nature of law. It has a deep metaphysical import ; but it regards the 
document before us rather as a chapter of philosophy than a compend 
of law. Considered as a summary of law, this document bears on it 
only one obvious principle of primary division, namely that of the 
party to whom the duty is owed, In this, its natural aspect, it 
contains two great divisions — the duty of man to God, in four com- 
mandments, and the duty of man to man, in the remaining six. It is 
strange that Augustine, having adopted this primary division, yet 
retained the two glaring faults of subdivision to which we have 
already adverted. In this way, though making his primary division 
at the end of the eleventh verse, he still conceives that there are three 
in the first table and seven in the second. In this he has been fol- 
lowed by the Latin and Lutheran Churches. He generally makes 
the prohibition to covet another man's wife the ninth commandment, 
according to the arrangement of Deut. v. 21 ; in which he is not 
followed by these churches. Other Jewish and Christian interpreters, 
including Philo, Josephus, Irenaeus, Origen, Jerome, the Eastern and 
Reformed Churches, agree in correcting the errors of subdivision 
which are exhibited in the Masoretic text. The primary division 
here under consideration was adopted not only by Augustine, but by 
Origen, and subsequently by Calvin and his followers, and hence 
appears not only in the Latin and Lutheran, but also in the British 
Churches and the documents of the Westminster Assembly of Divines. 

A third ground of primary division is the relation of equality or 
inequality between the parties to whom the duties refer. In this 
respect the Decalogue is divided into duties to superiors and duties to 
equals. Here the father and mother are associated with God as 
superiors, and all men including parents are classed together as equals. 
The point of division is carried forward to the end of the twelfth verse, 
and each table contains five of the "ten words." This is the primary 
28 



218 THE MORAL LAW. 

division of Philo, Josephus, and the modern Jews, of the Eastern and 
some Reformed Churches. It has the advantage of giving a numeri- 
cally equal partition of the ten commandments, and of bringing out 
into prominence the dignity of parents as the natural representatives 
of God to their children. Nevertheless it appears to be a more 
superficial ground of distribution than either of the others. Between 
God and man the line of demarcation is much more trenchant than 
between superiors and inferiors when men are found on both sides. 

The mere numerical equality of the two tables is a consideration 
of no moment; and the dignity of parents is sufficiently indicated 
by the position of the fifth commandment in the Decalogue. For 
these reasons we adhere to the second of the fundamental divisions 
described, as the most logical and suitable for common use. Which 
of them was exhibited on the two tables of stone we need not specu- 
late. But it is obvious that the second corresponds with that grand 
classification of all law which our Lord brings out into conspicuous 
prominence from the Old Testament, " the first and great command- 
ment," to "love the Lord thy God" with all thy powers, and the 
second like unto it, to "love thy neighbor as thyself" (Matt. xxii. 
35-40). 

1. And God. The use of this name of God here (the Everlasting, 
Eternal, Almighty) intimates that the fundamental principles of law 
have their standing in the abstract relations of theoretic truth antece- 
dent to the actual creation of a universe of things. Spake. Whatever 
media, whether elementary or angelic, God was pleased to employ on 
this occasion, it is manifest that the speech was his own, not merely as 
to the words spoken, but as to the articulate sounds actually perceived 
by the ear. We are aware that vibrations of the air are the usual 
medium for affecting the sense of hearing, and we have no reason to 
doubt that these were employed on the present occasion. We are 
informed that Moses stood between the Lord and the people " to show 
them the word of the Lord " ; yet it is expresssly said that it was the 
Lord that talked with them face to face in the mount (Deut. v. 4, 5). 
It appears from the Old and New Testament (Deut. xxxiii. 2, 3 ; Ps. 
lxviii. 18; Acts vii. 53; Gal. iii. 19 ; Heb. ii. 2) that angels were 
present and active at the promulgation of the law. The passages in 
the Old Testament merely intimate their presence. Those in the New 



EXODUS XX. 1, 2. 219 

point to some kind of agency. The phrase of Stephen (iXdfSsre rov 
vo/xov ets Siarayas dyyeAwv) " received the law by the arrangements " or 
ministry " of angels," may be regarded as equivalent to that of Paul 
(Siarayeis St' dyyoW) "arranged" or ministered "through angels." 
Attention is to be paid to the preposition Std, " through," which is used 
in the New Testament to denote the medium or intermediate agent, 
while the ultimate or proper agent is introduced by vtto, " by " (Matt. 
i. 22, ii. 15, xxii. 31 ; Acts ii., xvi., xxviii. 25 ; Rom. i. 2). This 
serves to elucidate the historical description of the law in Heb. ii. 2. 
(6 St' dyye/W XaXrjOeU \6yos) " the word spoken through angels." It 
is plain from the narrative now before us, that God was the actual 
speaker, in accordance with which the angels are here described as 
intermediate agents in the accomplishment of the act. We recognize 
the instrumentality of the atmospheric vibrations in the formation of 
articulate sounds. And as we notice the agency of the lightning flash 
in exciting those reverberations which produce the inarticulate sound 
of thunder, we may be prepared to hear of the agency of angels who 
are spirits and ministers who are a flaming fire (Ps. civ. 4), in awak- 
ening or regulating those discrete pulsations which constitute the 
articulate utterance of speech. How this was effected, what was the 
arranging or dispensing part of the angels in this great drama, as it is 
not revealed, we do not pretend to say. But as the performer is the 
source of the music, notwithstanding the concurrence of the bellows- 
blower, the organ pipes, and the ambient air, so we can understand 
that God was the real speaker of the ten words, notwithstanding the 
intervention of the dispensing angels and the vocal atmosphere. All 
these words. This oral communication consists of ten words or axioms 
of moral truth, that form a complete and orderly whole, and afford a 
broad basis for a system of ethical science. It is composed in the 
scriptural method of stating not a bare abstract principle, but a 
circumstantial concrete example, embodying the principle, ruling all 
like cases, and making a deeper and stronger impression on the mind. 
It presents the law, also, in the aspect of righteousness rather than 
goodness (Pom. v. 7), because it is designed to restrain those who 
have already fallen into disobedience. And hence it generally takes 
a negative form, and deals in prohibitions rather than requirements. 
It must be understood, however, that the prohibition involves the 



220 THE MORAL LAW. 

requirement, and we find that the requirement itself is given when it 
admits of equal or greater brevity of expression than the prohibition. 



THE FIRST COMMANDMENT. 

3, 4. The more closely we examine these two verses, the more 
surely will we come to the conclusion of the Jewish Rabbis, that the 
former is an essential part of the first commandment. It states a 
positive fact in the conviction and for the acknowledgment of the 
people, to which the latter verse merely adds the negative precept that 
gives strict precision and exclusiveness to the previous statement. 
The latter verse presupposes the former, and is incomplete without it. 
The consequent " thou shalt have no other gods " needs the antecedent 
" thou hast me." Yet in the admirable economy of this address, the 
former of these verses serves at the same time for the preface to the 
whole. It has therefore a twofold bearing on what follows — it is an 
integral part of the first commandment, and it is an introduction to the 
whole Decalogue. 

As an introduction to the whole law this verse identifies the parties 
to the covenant in the present instance. These are Jehovah and his 
people. It also lays down the only solid foundation of all obligation 
to keep this law. This is threefold : (1.) He who commands is the 
Lord, Jehovah, the Self-existent, the Creator, the absolute Author, 
and therefore Governor, of all persons and things. This is the primary 
rock on which all authority on his part and all obligation on ours 
rest. It is, moreover, not limited in its range, but co-extensive 
with the universe of responsible being. It is therefore the fitting 
term to stand at the head of a code of law. (2.) He is thy God. 
Here " thy " is the characteristic word. " God " (nprt'bx) the Ever- 
lasting, Almighty, antecedent to all creation, is presupposed as common 
to the whole definition of the great Being. The possessive word " thy " 
points to the covenant between God and his people. When taken in 
the utmost depth of its meaning it involves two things ; first, That 
God has chosen them to be his people ; and second, That he has sent 
his Spirit into their hearts, in consequence of which they have taken 
him to be their God. He that is born of the Spirit is become capable 
of spiritual acts. This is the sole ground of human ability to keep the 



EXODUS XX. 2, 3. 221 

commandments. To have God in this full sense for our God is, there- 
fore, the meet preparation for doing his will. He is the Regenerator. 
He gives ability. Ability begets obligation. Will tenders obedience. 
(3.) He is the Redeemer. He has brought his people out of the land 
of Mizraim, out of the house of bondage. This in the manner of 
Scripture and of Providence is the earnest and the guarantee of their 
deliverance from all other and greater kinds of bondage. The present 
is the type of a grander future. We must descend the stream of reve- 
lation to the New Testament before we fathom the depths of this 
great deliverance. But the redemption from Egypt is the immediate 
benefit before the minds of this people. It obviously binds them to 
gratitude and devotedness. Thus the appeal of God touches the 
inmost springs of their moral nature, and draws them by the threefold 
tie of creation, sanctification, and redemption, to reverence, obedience, 
and affection. 

The attentive observer will note the unity of the party addressed, 
indicated by the singular pronoun " thy, thee. " God's people are one 
in a very profound sense, as they have one Creator, Regenerator, and 
Redeemer (Gen. xvii. 7; Ex. iv. 22; Gal. iii. 16; Eph. iv. 2-16). 
But this pointed form of address at the same time brings home the 
obligation of the law of heaven to the indvidual as well as the commu- 
nity. It is another instance of the happy choice of words in this piece. 

As the affirmative part of the first commandment this verse admon- 
ishes the people that Jehovah, the Creator, who has singled them out 
as his own, and has redeemed them from bondage, is their God. This 
is itself the root of all obligation, and this obligation is expressed in 
the word " thy, " which asserts the connection between creature and 
Creator. This brings out the relation of right. God had the right of 
creation to man, and he has the right of regeneration and redemption 
to his people. Man has, inherently, no right to anything. These two 
propositions are the basis of all eternal law. God made a grant to 
man on his creation with a necessary reserve (see on Gen. ii. 15-17). 
Man infringed on this reserve under temptation, and so forfeited the 
divine grant. Yet God bears with man, proclaims his mercy, and 
accepts the returning penitent who trusts in his word. It is obvious 
that such come under new obligations to the Almighty, re -enforcing 
the great principles of moral truth. 



222 THE MOKAL LAW. 

3. The first commandment in its negative form refers to the unity of 
God. It enjoins the owning of this unity. It is therefore against 
polytheism. This precept is of universal obligation. The idea 
of God, the Everlasting and Almighty Jehovah, the Creator and 
Upholder, involves in its very nature the idea of unity ; and so this 
negative verse is implied in the affirmative one that precedes. But the 
nations had lost the consciousness of their own unity as a race, and 
with this the consciousness of the unity of their common Creator. 
Each principality, each town, and at length each family, began to 
regard the god of its erring fancy as different in individuality from 
that of others. The step was easy to the recognition of gods many 
and lords many. Hence it became necessary to add the definite 
exclusion of all other imaginable objects of worship to the express 
acknowledgment of the Lord God. The original form of the expres- 
sion is here worthy of attention. " There shall not be to thee other 
gods upon my face." Here it is demanded that the non-existence of 
other gods be recognized. This presupposes the affirmative of such 
non-existence. Such gods are cMpB nonentities. ■"P'T afc " there 
shall not be," is directly opposed to HVjK " I Am," and to niiT. the 
Author of existence (iii. 14, vi. 3), the exclusive names of the God 
of creation and of covenant. Before me is literally " upon my face." 
It supposes those other gods to be set up before the true God as 
antagonists in the eye of God, and as casting a shade over his eternal 
being and incommunicable glory in the eye of the worshipper. 



THE SECOND COMMANDMENT. 

4-6. The second commandment refers to the worship of God. It 
guards the immateriality or spirituality of his nature. It opposes 
idolatry, that is, the worship of an idol or image of God, or of God 
through an idol. We are not to make, worship, or serve an idol. 
Any graven image. This is a carved image of stone or wood. Any 
likeness. The word h3TO.Bj denotes any form presented to the eye 
(Num. xii. 8 ; Job iv. 16), and therefore includes all sorts of pictures 
as well as images. It is probable that the Israelites were acquainted 
with the pictorial representations of idols in Egypt. At all events, 
the specific instance involves the general rule, that every kind of 



EXODUS XX. 4-6. 223 

visible similitude is to be avoided in the worship of the invisible God. 
In heaven above. The Egyptians had images of celestial, terrestrial, 
and aquatic objects of worship (Wilkinson). The water under the 
earth. It is important to notice that " under " here means " lower in 
level," lest the Scriptures be accused of propounding the theory, that 
the interior of our sphere is filled with water. 5. For. The reason 
here assigned applies equally to the first and second commandments, and 
warrants the Masoretes in placing the verses (2-6) containing them in 
close contiguity. A jealous God. The passions of a moral being have 
their right as well as their wrong use. Hence anger, jealousy, hatred, 
and revenge are ascribed to God, not as passions, but as the feelings of 
a holy being in regard to that which is evil (Deut. xxxii. 21, 22, 35). 
As the Judge of the universe, God has the supreme right not only to 
entertain these feelings, but also to carry out their holy behests in the 
administration of his everlasting dominion. This is the first distant 
allusion to the semblance of the covenant between God and his people 
to a marriage contract. Visiting the iniquity, pursuing and over- 
taking the offender with condign punishment. There is significance 
in the phrase " visiting the iniquity" as it shows that the sons are 
not involved in the penalty if they are not found in the iniquity of 
their fathers. The iniquity here spoken of is that of polytheism oi 
idolatry, of having or making any other God. For the idol, or the 
being it represents, is not the true God, but another god, after the 
fashion of a vain imagination (Rom. i. 21-25). He that makes and 
worships an idol has lost the knowledge of the true God. This 
iniquity is called the iniquity of the fathers, inasmuch as it originates 
with them, and is only perpetuated in the sons who adhere to it. The 
history of the world shows that the ungodliness of the fathers is, as a 
rule of fallen nature, followed by the sons. Only grace interrupts the 
succession of sin. Upon the sons, upon the third and upon the fourth 
generation. This is a timely guard against a common error to which 
men have been prone in all ages, namely, that the opinions and customs 
of their forefathers, even though they be wrong, are an excuse or 
justification for the sons walking in the same errors of judgment and 
conduct. The fathers will have to account for their own iniquity, not 
only as men, but as fathers setting a bad example to their household. 
But the sons who, on arriving at the exercise of a natural judgment, 



224 THE MORAL LAW. 

walk in the same iniquity will be treated as responsible beings, and 
visited for the iniquity which they have made their own. Many evil 
consequences, indeed, such as poverty, disease, and infamy, befall the 
children of ungodly and vicious parents. But a profounder truth is 
taught in this passage, and the example of it was patent before the 
eyes of the audience assembled in Horeb. The forefathers of the 
Egyptians had departed from the living God, and devised for them- 
selves the eight gods of the first order, the twelve of the second, and 
the seven of the third, besides their countless modifications and sub- 
divisions of the divine essence. Their sons of the existing generation 
not only followed, but outstript, their fathers in the abominations of 
superstition and deification ; they contemptuously ignored the true 
God, whom their fathers acknowledged (Gen. xli.), and trampled upon 
his people. In this instance the Lord had signally visited the iniquity 
of the fathers upon the sons in the ten plagues, and in the overwhelming 
of their hosts in the Red Sea. Upon all the gods of Egypt he had 
executed judgment, and caused the Egyptians to know and acknowledge 
that he was the Lord (vii. 5, viii. 8, ix. 27, xii. 12). 

"With these tremendous judgments of the past few months still fresh 
upon their memories, the awe-struck hearers would have a vivid con- 
ception of what was meant by the jealous God visiting the iniquity of 
the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation. 
The despotic and barbarous measures of the new king that knew not 
Joseph had been commenced in the time of Moses's father, and 
therefore about four generations from the time then present. Each 
generation had only been advancing in the severity with which they 
oppressed the chosen people of the Lord, until their cry ascended to 
heaven, and the Lord interposed for their vindication. Overwhelming 
was the visitation for their aggravated and infatuated hostility to God 
and his people. God admonishes the world by terrible examples of 
his righteous indignation ; and then pauses to leave men the full exer- 
cise of their free-agency. Of them that hate me. To have or to make 
another god is to hate the true God. Here let it be observed that in 
the estimate of God there is no difference between forsaking him for 
another and hating him. The negative state of indifference to him or 
inclination to another necessarily involves the positive state of hatred 
to the true God. Nothing can be more base or blameable than to 



EXODUS XX. 4-6. 225 

forsake the very Author of our being and all our blessings for the 
mere phantom of a delusive imagination. It is the special temptation 
of descendants, whether in the nation or the family, to follow their 
ancestors in apostasy from God or the truth which he has revealed 
concerning himself and his ways. Hence at the birth of this nation 
whom he has chosen for himself he lifts up a monitory voice, reminding 
ihem of the judgment of Egypt, and warning them to beware of incur- 
ring a like visitation. To allow free scope for that voluntary return 
to confession and obedience which can alone be pleasing to God, he 
may in long-suffering withhold the full force of his correcting hand 
even to the fourth generation. But a nation or a family that neglects 
opportunities of knowing God and his mercy need not expect to be 
long without the dread experience of his power and justice. 

6. And showing mercy. Mercy is that form of the divine goodness 
winch reason dare not affirm and revelation alone can proclaim. And 
to show mercy or do kindness, not to requite merit or reward righteous- 
ness, is the most favorable language that can be employed concerning 
any portion of a fallen race. It forms the contrast here to " visiting 
iniquity." Unto thousands. Here is a cheering prospect and a sweet 
assurance to godly parents. " Thousands " may be fairly understood 
to mean the thousandth generation, and therefore to intimate the 
possibility, if not the probability, of piety becoming hereditary, or 
being perpetuated in the given line to the end of time. And the 
comforting promise is, that God will never fail to show mercy to all 
successive generations that humbly and thankfully own him for their 
God. We observe how mercy rejoices over judgment: God visits 
iniquity unto the fourth generation ; he shows mercy unto the thou- 
sandth. Of them that love me and keep my commandments. The 
objects of the divine mercy are those who have the Lord for their 
God, and worship him in spirit and in truth. They meet his mercy 
with an earnest, confiding gratitude ; and this feeling displays itself in 
"loving him and keeping his commandments." There is an intense 
interest connected with the expression "them that love me." It 
plainly intimates that those who have no other God before the true 
God. and make no other God beside him, are those who at the same 
time love him. It proves that the negative quality of not forsaking 
the true God is understood to imply the positive quality of being 
29 



226 THE MORAL LAW. 

faithful to him and loving him. This gives a new character to the 
whole Decalogue. It now becomes not a mere negative law of right- 
eousness, but a positive law of love. This principle applying to the 
first two precepts will extend to the whole. Besides, if we love 
him that begat, we shall love those who are begotten ; and therefore 
love to God will naturally result in love to all his creatures. This 
closing sentence would sink deep into the hearts of those reverential 
auditors in Horeb's glens. It forms the bright counterpart to the 
dark menace conveyed in the preceding one. As the former has its 
dread exemplification in the judgments executed on Egypt, so the 
latter finds its hopeful illustration in the chosen race. Those who 
then stood before the mount of God were about the tenth generation 
from Abraham, the father of the faithful. The faith of their great 
forefather was still the profession, of all and the inward experience of a 
goodly number, in that vast multitude. And God had been unchange- 
ably faithful in " showing mercy " to them during all that interval, and 
especially to the tenth generation who had been brought out of the 
land of bondage and were on their way to a land of blessing. Here, 
then, was the warning against apostasy on the one hand and the 
encouragement to fidelity on the other, presented in the most striking 
examples to this new-born nation. 

It is interesting to find the glad tidings of the mercy of God presup- 
posed and incidentally proclaimed in this address from the mount of 
God. It is important also to note the place where the two alternatives 
of judgment and mercy are inserted in this legislative address. They 
come after the two precepts enjoining the exclusive and direct owning 
and worshipping of the true God. This indicates that to have the 
Lord for our God, and to have and to make no other god, is the basis 
of all religion, and the substance of the covenant between God and 
his people. All that follows after is the mere carrying out of this 
fundamental and fully expressed principle. This deep and important 
thought fully bears out the Masorah in throwing verses 2-6 into one 
paragraph. 

THE THIED COMMANDMENT. 

7. After the acknowledgment of the One Great Spirit as our God 
comes the manner in which we ought to treat him. Tlie name of God 



EXODUS XX. 7. 227 

is that " by which he makes himself known." In the realistic style of 
Scripture, where names are significant, the name indicates the nature 
of God. It is expressive, therefore, of his godhead or deity. It 
especially intimates that great attribute which is the sum and substance 
of the divine nature. Power belongeth unto God (Ps. lxii. 11 ; Rom. 
i. 20) as the essence of his being; for power implies freedom, and 
freedom will, and will intelligence ; power, will, and intellect are the 
three essentials of a spirit. To take the name of God in vain is to 
violate his essence, power, truth. This commandment is therefore 
directed against blasphemy, perjury, and all other modes of dishonoring 
the name of God. In its form it serves to illustrate that feature in 
the style of Scripture according to which a plain and familiar case is 
set forth to embody a general principle. And hence in a profounder 
sense it is opposed to pantheism, naturalism, creaturism, or the apply- 
ing of the name of God to the creation or any part of it, or dealing 
with it as if it belonged to a creature. 

The sin here forbidden has been as prevalent as polytheism or 
idolatry. It has assumed all forms, from the deification of a fetish to 
that of the sun, moon, and stars, or of the universe. It has appeared 
not only as a superstition, but as a philosophy, falsely so called. It 
consists in the ascription either of divine attributes to a creature, or of 
creature attributes to God. The latter is the form chiefly contem- 
plated in the command, as it is addressed to those whose God is the 
Lord. It tends to atheism. 

Will not acquit him. There is here an allusion to the " visiting of 
iniquity " mentioned in the previous passage. The iniquity of taking 
the name of God in vain is akin to that of having another god, or 
making an idol before the living and true God. It is a form of apos- 
tasy and ungodliness, and therefore involves the same guilt, doom, and 
penalty. This raises the third commandment to the same gravity of 
character with the former two. The investigation of the nature of 
that crime which it prohibits has led us to the same conclusion regard- 
ing its primary importance. 

The first commandment, then, guards the unity of God ; the second, 
his spirituality ; the third, his deity, or essence. In the first we are 
forbidden to make God one of many, when he is the only One ; in the 
second, to liken him to a corruptible image, when he is the incorrupt- 



228 THE MOEAL LAW. 

ible Spirit ; in the third, to identify him in any way with the creature, 
when he is the Creator. The three combine to form the fundamental 
law of monotheism ; but at the same time they present an adumbra- 
tion of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The Father is God, 
the invisible one; the Son is the express image of the Father 
(Heb. i. 2) ; and the Spirit is the inward power or essence of God. 

It is manifest that the ontological division of this solemn proclama- 
tion from Sinai takes place at this point. All that goes before refers 
to the essence of God ; all that follows relates, not to his essence, but 
to his work. This division rests on the theological aspect of the 
" ten words." 



THE FOUETH COMMANDMENT. 

8-11. This grand compend of law now descends from the personal 
rights of God to the day of his rest. The former precepts are purely 
moral ; the fourth is partly moral and partly positive. The principle 
that man's time should be divided between labor under the eye of God 
and leisure for the solemnities of his worship is moral. The apportion- 
ment according to the example of God is positive. The first three 
precepts are of universal obligation whenever and wherever there is 
a rational creature. The fourth is specially binding on man, being 
founded on the six days' work and the seventh days' rest in that 
creation of which he formed the crowning part. It is therefore to 
him of perpetual significance and obligation. Referring to a day of 
rest for appearing before God, it inculcates religion and prohibits 
secularity. It has a twofold form : affirmative — " Remember the 
Sabbath day to hallow it ; " negative — "In it thou shalt not do any 
work." 

8. Remember. Pointing to an event of the past it is the precept 
of memory. It deals with the commemorative principle. This is in 
keeping with the constitution of man. Memory is the faculty of his- 
tory ; and the remembrance of events that have a momentous influence 
on the interests of man is congenial with all the tendencies of his 
nature. The day. It is not without significance that the law contains 
a commandment concerning time, and none concerning space. Human 
action occupies a certain time, while it has no definite relation to 



EXODUS XX. 8-10. 229 

space. It also implies forethought, deliberation, purpose, volition. It 
involves an agent and a patient, a cause and an effect. As a course 
of conduct runs through a certain length of time, action and duration 
come to be measures of each other. Hence history and chronology 
are inseparably associated. Spirit may be said to be to time as 
matter is to space. The one fills time with the successive acts of it's 
free powers ; as the other occupies space with the wide-spread field 
of its constant forces. The day is the natural unit of time, and affords 
the measure for the division of time in the fourth commandment. It 
extends from sunset to sunset (Lev. xxiii. 32). Sabbath, a rest, not 
that of sleep or death, but vacation from business, leisure for converse 
with God. To hallow it, set it apart from the rest of time for sacred 
rest. 

9. Six days shalt thou labor. There is here an injunction to labor 
in so far as it is necessary for the support of life. There is at the 
same time a permission to employ six successive days in labor. 
Experience proves that this is more than sufficient for raising from the 
ground the sustenance needful for man. And do all thy work. Work 
or business is a more extensive term than labor. The latter refers to 
out-door work or manual labor, requiring effort and entailing toil ; the 
former includes, moreover, the routine of domestic operations, the 
management of affairs, the transactions of buvino; and selling, and all 
that is usually meant by the term " business." 

10. But the seventh day. TVTiile six days are allowed for business, 
the seventh is assigned to leisure. The number seven has acquired a 
typical sacredness from its application to the Sabbath. The rest of 
God after six days of creative activity, in which a habitation was 
prepared, and man, the intended inhabitant, created, is the historical 
foundation for the Sabbath. But the proportion of time for labor and 
for rest is not only derived from the history but adapted to the nature 
of man. The operations of the corporeal frame consist of three parts : 
first, that which is involuntary and without intermission, as the action 
of the heart and other internal functionaries of the vital organism ; 
second, that which is instinctive, as the travail of the animal powers 
in search of food, shelter, and other natural requirements ; and third, 
that which is rational, as the effort to attain a certain end beyond the 
merely animal wants. The first part of the movement is kept in 



230 THE MOEAL LAW. 

constant vigor by the regular supply of food. The second has its 
recompense in the natural repose of sleep. The third remains over, 
to be relieved by a recurring period of rest to be determined by 
reason. As on the whole about a third part of the exertion of our 
powers may be due to this last source, and that for the half of the 
natural day, it follows that a sixth part of each natural day needs its 
compensating repose. After six days, therefore, a seventh day of 
rest seems needful to repair the waste and weariness accruing from 
voluntary rational effort. At all events the special activity of the 
rational powers evidently stands in need of being recruited by a third 
provision, not of the animal, but of the rational nature, and that is 
plainly the Sabbath. 

A Sabbath to the Lord thy God. Rest and dedication to God are 
the properties here assigned to the Sabbath. The observance of the 
Sabbath connects man with the origin of Ins race, with the six days' 
creation, and with the Creator himself. The connection is manifestly 
a historical one. He that observes the Sabbath aright holds the 
history of that which it celebrates to be authentic, and therefore 
believes in the creation of the first man, in the creation of a fair abode 
for man in the space of six days, in the primeval and absolute creation 
of the heavens and the earth, and, as a necessary antecedent to all this, 
in the Creator, who at the close of his latest creative effort rested on 
the seventh day. The Sabbath thus becomes a sign by which the 
believers in a historical revelation are distinguished from those who 
have allowed these great facts to fade from their remembrance (xxxi. 
13). The leisure of the Sabbath-day, moreover, affords the oppor- 
tunity for the holy convocation, and for the public and private exercises 
of praise, prayer, reading, expounding, and applying the word of God. 
The observance of the Sabbath, then, becomes the characteristic of 
those who cherish the recollections of the origin of their race, and who 
worship God not merely as Elohim, the Everlasting Almighty, but as 
Jehovah, the historical God, the Creator, who has revealed himself to 
man from the dawn of his existence as the God of love, and afterwards 
of mercy and grace, of promise and performance. 

Thou shalt not do any work. Both labor and business (rtSas and 
roxbs , the latter including the former) are excluded on the weekly 
Sabbath. Thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter. These are the free. 



EXODUS XX. 10 ; 11. 231 

The remainder, commencing without the copulative conjunction, are 
the bond. It is remarkable that this enumeration intimates the duties 
of superiors to their inferiors. It points to the right and duty of 
parents, masters, and hosts to restrain those under them from sin and 
train them to holiness. It makes the mother, the wife, the mistress, 
not subject in this respect, but equal to the husband. It marks the 
accountability of owners also. In like manner it affirms the right of 
children, servants, and strangers to the observance of the Sabbath, 
and, by parity of reason, to the free exercise of all other religious 
duties. It inculcates the kind treatment of the lower animals. Espec- 
ially it claims the seventh-day rest for the domestic animals that labor 
for and with man in the pursuit of his rational ends. Thy stranger 
that is within thy gates (see on xii. 19). They were sojourners, not 
yet incorporated by circumcision into the community of Israel. 

11. For. A reason is assigned for the observance of this precept, 
as there was for all that preceded it. God requires a rational service. 
The reason is historical. It refers to the original division of time into 
six days of work and a seventh day of rest on the occasion of the crea- 
tion of man. Then God not only rested after the six days of creation, 
but blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. He thus instituted a 
seventh-day Sabbath of perpetual obligation, and therefore now enforces 
its constant remembrance and observance (see on Gen. ii. 1-3). 
Reminding him of his exalted origin and bringing him into contact 
with his Maker, it awakens in his breast all those feelings of joy and 
thankfulness which the possession of conscious being naturally evokes. 

From the essence of God we naturally pass to his action. As the 
former three precepts indicate his intrinsic essence, so the fourth 
reveals the foundation of his authority over the creature. The act 
of creation is the origin of all title to the creature and to the obedience 
of the intelligent creation. The creation of man is commemorated in 
the fourth commandment. Hence it contains the fountain-head of all 
authority in God and all duty in man. The former three are negative. 
This is affirmative. The former regard eternity. This refers to time, 
and 'deals with man's conduct towards God, dividing it into innocent 
business and recreation on six days, and holy leisure for converse with 
God on the seventh. The absolute authority of God is no less impor- 
tant to us than his necessary being. The former three commands 



232 THE MOBAL LAW. 

relate exclusively to God. The fourth introduces man on the stage 
of existence. It forms, therefore, the natural transition from the 
rights of God to those of man. / 

Regarding the ten words as a law, we are now come to the point 
of main division. A law determines what is due to each class of 
persons ; and therefore may be divided according to the various rights 
due, or the various parties to whom they are due. In a primary 
division these two principles come ultimately to the same thing, inas- 
much as the nature of the right depends entirely on the nature of the 
person to whom it is due. The present summary of law is divided on 
the latter principle into the duties of man to God, and of man to man. 
The subdivisions that flow from such a primary classification are 
merely the analysis of the sum of right due to each class of individuals. 

THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT. 

12-17. We are now come to that series of commandments which 
contain our duty to man. This is divided into our duty to superiors, 
contained in one, and our duty to equals, contained in the remaining 
five. 

12. This commandment prescribing our duty to superiors is prop- 
erly arranged after the four that determine our duty to the great 
Supreme. It is also the meet companion of the fourth, inasmuch as 
they are both founded on the history and nature of man : the former 
pointing to the origin of the race ; the latter to that of the individual. 
Honor thy father and thy mother. We have here a beautiful instance 
of the scriptural method of laying down a principle by enunciating 
its most striking and important example. The parents are the only 
natural superiors, for they are, under God, the authors of the existence 
of those children for whose maintenance and training they labor with 
all the assiduity of natural affection. This sublime scheme of general 
jurisprudence does not condescend to notice the ephemeral arrange- 
ments of artificial society, but selects the primeval distinction of parent 
and child as the theme of legislation concerning superiors and inferiors. 
The parent stands to the child in the relations of progenitor, benefac- 
tor, teacher, and ruler. As progenitor he is, under God, the author 
of the child's existence ; and this gives him a rightful authority over 



EXODUS XX. 12. 233 

tlie child second only to that supreme authority which creation gives 
to God over both parent and child. Parental affection moves the 
father, and especially the mother, to those unwearied efforts of tender, 
loving, fostering care that are demanded by the helplessness of infancy 
and childhood, and forms the type and shadow of that disinterested 
beneficence which comes out in other circumstances in the priestly 
office. The wisdom and experience of age qualify him to cultivate 
the intellectual, active, and moral powers of his child ; in the discharge 
of which duties he foreshadows the functions of the prophet, the 
teacher, and the preacher. His authority as parent entitles him, and 
his affection and experience befit him, to exercise a benignant sway 
over his child, and therein to adumbrate the affairs of the elder or 
ruler in the politcal and ecclesiastical worlds. 

The "father" and "mother" are distinctly specified to indicate that 
they are equal in authority, and therefore equally entitled to that 
" honor " which the mother will attract by her love and the father 
will enforce by his power. This honor naturally resolves itself into 
reverence for the authors of our being, gratitude for the nameless 
blessings of a home, docility to the patient and persevering educators 
of our infant minds, and obedience to the commands of our natural 
superiors. The patriarch was father, priest, prophet, and king in his 
household or clan. In the more complex arrangements of nations and 
empires the magistrate and the priest came out into prominence and 
influence as distinct orders, and even the teacher sometimes asserted 
a standing and a rank for himself in the social scale. But all these 
subdivisions of authority find their origin and standard in the parental 
relation and the fifth commandment. This commandment enforces 
all lawful authority, and is opposed to all the levelling and deranging 
fancies of anarchy and democracy. 

That thy days may he long in the land. This is the first command- 
ment with promise. To comprehend all the meaning of this we must 
remember that the personal pronoun " thou, thy," is to be taken both 
in a collective and individual sense. In the collective sense it refers to 
the whole people, and conveys the assurance that compliance with this 
command will prolong or perpetuate their possession of the promised 
land. In the previous commandment parents were required to impress 
upon their children the observance of the Sabbath and the mainten- 
30 



234 THE MORAL LAW. 

ance of that reverence for God, remembrance of his creative powei 
and authority, and devotion to his worship which- are inseparably 
associated with the day. The dutiful attention of children to these 
instructions will serve to perpetuate fidelity to God among the people 
from generation to generation, and therewith to perpetuate the inheri- 
tance of the land of their forefathers. On the other hand, the neglect 
of the parents to enforce, or of the children to maintain, the observance 
of the Sabbath, and all its associations with the origin of their race 
and with the Creator and Preserver of their being, will inevitably tend 
to apostasy from the true God, and consequent expulsion from the 
land of all their natural and religious affections. ' The subsequent his- 
tory of this people to the present day forms a striking comment on 
the sentence now before us. The great economic law, however, that 
filial obedience is the main foundation of national stability and pros- 
perity, is not peculiar to the Jews. The domestic virtues have in all 
nations been the prolific source of social greatness and progress. 

The personal application, however, of this promise is no less just 
and important. Length of days or of inheritance is a law running 
through the moral government of God, counteracted, no doubt, and 
modified by the interference of other laws that contribute no less to 
the ultimate, if not immediate, good of the individual. For if life be 
shortened to a child of God, he only enters the sooner upon a better 
and higher life ; and if the inheritance be shorter than the life, yet 
he cannot be deprived of that precious and present inheritance that all 
things, even affliction, work together for his good. 

Which the Lord thy God giveth thee, is going to give thee, is in the 
purpose and process of giving thee, as the imperfect or current parti- 
ciple denotes. The mention of this circumstance concerning the land 
favors the wider interpretation of this promise, as it was to the whole 
people the Lord was about to give the land. It does not however 
preclude its reference to individuals. It is to be noted that if we 
regard the second verse as an integral part of the first commandment, 
the phrase " the Lord thy God " occurs in each of the first five com- 
mandments. 

This is the third and last point at which the main division of the 
Decalogue may be placed ; the ground of distinction being the rank 
of the parties to whom the rights are assigned. The first five refer 



EXODUS XX. 12, 13. 235 

to the rights of superiors, and the second five to those of equals. But 
the second point of division is much more marked than this. The 
contradistinction between God and man is incomparably more impor- 
tant than that between superiors and equals, when among the superiors 
God and man are classed together, and opposed to men as equals. It 
is obvious that the fourth and fifth commandments form the easy and 
gradual transition from the higher to the lower sphere of legislation. 
They stand together in many respects. They have a positive form. 
The one introduces us to the family of heaven ; the other to the family 
of earth. The former touches incidentally on the duties of parents and 
masters ; the latter relates to the duties of children and servants. The 
one respects the " honor " due to the Great Father of all ; the other 
that which is due to his natural representative and type among men. 

13-17. These verses contain the five precepts regarding equals. 
Three of these refer to deeds, one to words, and one to thoughts. 
They guard the life, the chastity, the property, and the character of 
our neighbor, not only from the outward act, but from the inward 
thought of violence. It is, indeed, in all cases, the intent that gives 
moral character to the act. 



THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT. 

13. This commandment protects life, and is against all endeavors that 
endanger the life of our neighbor. As there is no object expressed, it 
prohibits suicide as well as homicide. It also forbids violence, passion, 
lust, intemperance in eating or drinking, or anything that tends to 
shorten life. The peculiar sacredness of human life lies in this, that 
man is a responsible being, liable to be rewarded or punished according 
to his deeds. Life is the reward of obedience, and death is the penalty 
of disobedience. The circumstance that this life is to the sinner the 
season of invitation to return to God, who will have mercy on him, 
deepens immeasurably the crime of cutting short his life in the midst 
of his impenitence. All these considerations are wrapped up in the 
paramount reflection that man was created in the image of God. Life 
is also used in a pregnant sense in Scripture. It rises from the mere 
natural life to the spiritual life, which is rekindled in the dead soul by 
the Spirit of life through the word of life. This widens immensely the 



236 THE MOKAL LAW. 

scope of this commandment. And if we now advance from the mere 
negation of refraining from evil to the position of abounding in good, 
we behold opening before us a boundless prospect of well-doing for 
the children of God. 

THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT. 

14. This commandment sanctions marriage and prohibits fornication, 
adultery, and all unchaste acts. Among mankind, who are naturally- 
gifted with reason and conscience, the cohabiting of the sexes ought 
to be after the solemn compact of lawful wedlock by mutual consent. 
Marriage ought to be between one man and one woman who are not 
within the forbidden degrees of consanguinity. Nothing dissolves its 
bonds but adultery. Married life is not sinful or defiling. On the 
other hand it calls forth some of the tenderest, fairest, finest feelings of 
humanity ; and gives scope for as high and holy duties as any relation 
in life. This commandment guards the home from the external in- 
truder on its chastity, as the fifth does from the internal disturber of 
its peace. 

The formation of the woman out of the man indicates in a striking 
and beautiful manner the unity of the married pair. The fourth and 
fifth commandments concur with this in presupposing a parity of right 
between the husband and wife. The law of Moses and the law of 
Christ agree in vindicating the natural right of woman against the 
arbitrary might of man. And Judaism and Christianity have been 
honorably distinguished among the nations for respecting the rights of 
the weaker sex. This is the more remarkable, as they both originated 
in the East, where the harem prevails. 

Marriage has been peculiarly ennobled by being employed to typify 
the union between God and his people; while apostasy has been 
odiously branded as fornication and adultery. 

THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT. 

15. This precept guards property, and is directed against taking that 
which does not belong to us, whether by violence or fraud. The most 
heinous breach of this commandment is the stealing of man. If prop- 
erty be taken in a large sense, this precept includes the two preceding, 



EXODUS XX. 15-17. 237 

as the life and the body are strictly property. If it embrace what 
belongs to another as a debt or a right, then this commandment covers 
the whole field of relative duty. The Maker is the only ultimate pro- 
prietor. Not a tree of the garden belongs to Adam till the Creator 
makes the definite grant. All men are equal in point of natural right. 
The only natural superiority is that of the parent. All other authority 
of man over man is by covenant or tacit consent. This, then, is the 
most comprehensive of all the commandments. And it occupies the 
central place among the laws between equals. 

The three preceding commandments refer to action,, and in this we 
see a warrant for grouping them in one verse, as is done in some 
manuscripts. They also bear a certain analogy to the first two or 
three commandments. To have another god is a practical annihilation 
of the true God. Idolatry is a spiritual adultery. Stealing, in a large 
sense, will include taking the name of God in vain. It is in one sense 
the only thing of which we can rob God. 

THE NINTH COMMANDMENT. 

16. This commandment refers to speech, enjoins truth, and is 
directed against falsehood. It covers the same ground as the preced- 
ing three ; as falsehood may imperil life, chastity, or property. It 
assumes its darkest form when the falsehood is uttered avowedly in 
the presence of God, who searches the heart, and will bring every 
word into judgment. In this aspect it bears the same relation to the 
third commandment which the three preceding do to the first two or 
three. Besides the common applications of this law, its importance is 
enhanced by the circumstances that most of our information concern- 
ing the present or the past comes to us in the form of language, and 
that our knowledge of God, of his work, and of his grace is conveyed 
to us in his word. The eternal, then, as well as the temporal, interests 
of man are linked with spoken and written words. How awful, then, 
the responsibility of those who are endowed with the faculty of speech. 

THE TENTH COMMANDMENT. 

17. This commandment refers to the thoughts, inculcates disinter- 
estedness, and prohibits indulging a desire after that which belongs to 



238 THE MORAL LAW. 

another. The first clause is followed by a closed space indicating a 
snbordinate separation from the following clauses. The verb is also 
repeated at the beginning of the second clause, intimating a marked 
distinction, and warranting a certain pause, though not a subdivision 
of the Decalogue. The transposal of the first two clauses in Deut. v. 
21 is sufficient to show that in the estimate of the transcriber the two 
were included in one of the ten words. This precept, also, is co-ex- 
tensive with the three precepts referring to the outward acts. A man 
cannot covet his neighbor's life ; but he may desire his death, if it 
would make way for his acquiring possession of any coveted thing that 
belonged to him. In the arrangement of the present book, "the 
house " is placed first. This is generally understood of the material 
building in which a man dwells. We prefer regarding the prominent 
thought implied in it here to be the family, including the parents, and 
especially the sons and daughters of all living generations ; inasmuch 
as, (1) the other objects specified are living creatures, and " anything 
that is thy neighbor's " includes the goods and lands ; (2) the children 
are not otherwise mentioned, though of more importance than servants 
or cattle ; (3) a due subordination is thus introduced into the details, 
the house coming first, as including the parents and children, the wife 
next, as the separable part of the neighbor, and then the servants, 
cattle, and inanimate objects. In Deuteronomy the prominent thought 
in "house" seems to be the material building; and hence the wife, 
who is also the mother, and includes the children, is placed first, the 
house and the field are associated together in the next place, the 
service by which these are rendered comfortable and profitable has the 
third rank, and the products of their labor hold the last. The arrange- 
ment in Exodus corresponds closely with the three precepts concerning 
the outward acts ; as the sixth commandment bears upon the family in 
its widest sense, the seventh especially on the wife, and the eighth in 
some sense upon the servants, the cattle, and the goods. 

The improper desire is the root of all evil. It can seldom be 
reached by human legislation. But it is open to the Searcher of 
hearts. The intent is that which, in the last resort, determines the 
moral character of the act. This last " word " is, therefore, the inter- 
preting clause of the whole Decalogue (Rom. vii. 7). It raises the 
code immeasurably above every code of man, who looketh on the 



EXODUS XX. 17. 239 

outward appearance of conduct, and at once renders it worthy of the 
Lord who looketh on the heart. Covetousness here includes envy, 
malice, and every other selfish or unholy state of the feelings. Its 
prohibition involves the inculcation not merely of disinterestedness, 
but of all the forms of unselfish benevolence. This commandment is, 
therefore, virtually the law of love, and in this positive sense gives 
that loftier aspect to the Decalogue, the traces of which have been 
already noticed. 

As the ninth commandment is related to the third, so the tenth has 
several points of relation with the fourth: (1.) It enjoins disinterest- 
edness, and the observance of a seventh day's rest is a most powerful 
and practical demand for the same state of the affections. (2.) It 
contains an enumeration of the inmates and surroundings of the home ; 
and the fourth commandment does the same, and with much of the 
same intent. (3.) It strikes at the root of all inhumanity in the words 
and acts of men ; and the law of the Sabbath strikes at the root of 
all ungodliness in a world that is prone to secularity. There is no 
command of the Decalogue by which the public sense of religious 
obligation has been so deeply tried and found wanting as the fourth ; 
and the obvious and almost avowed spring of all worldly opposition and 
natural antipathy to it is the selfish, grasping, avaricious spirit which 
is condemned in the tenth. 

This brings out a curious proof of the internal coherence of these 
ten words. If we connect together the first and second commandment, 
and likewise form the sixth, seventh, and eighth, that relate to the 
outward conduct, into one group, we bring to view a remarkable 
analogy between the former and the latter; and the same analogy 
appears between the third and ninth, and between the fourth and tenth. 
Thus the law is found to fall naturally into a sevenfold division, three 
members of which relating to God are before the fifth commandment, 
and three relating to man after this central precept relating to parents. 
The number ten points to the perfection of this code, and this internal 
septenary arrangement to its holiness. There is, therefore, a won- 
derful display of unity and comprehensiveness in this moral discourse. 
"Wliile adopting the concrete form that comes home to the common 
mind, it embodies at the same time in its familiar examples all the 
great abstract principles of moral truth. The mild voice of a paternal 



240 THE MORAL LAW. 

authority is heard in it, inasmuch as while it warns the decided or defiant 
apostate of certain retribution, it whispers mercy to every returning 
penitent. It is addressed, no doubt, to the sons of Israel, and alludes 
to their recent deliverance from bondage ; but it purports to be the 
utterance of the Almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth. It does 
not suffer any limitation by being proclaimed to that portion of the 
human race which remained in professed communion with God, since 
it forewarns the apostate nations of approaching visitation, and clothes 
its precepts in the garb of denunciations against their most glaring 
sins. Many of its precepts are of universal and eternal obligation, and 
none of them is narrower than the whole compass and duration of the 
human race on earth. To the heirs of immortality, when they have 
become the spirits of just men made perfect, when they neither marry 
nor are given in marriage, and have more things common than air and 
crater, the principles contained in the sixth, seventh, and eighth com- 
mandments, if they require to be republished, will assume a new form 
adapted to their new condition. But the principles themselves, and 
even the form in which they are now presented, can never cease to be 
self-evident and self-binding. 

18-21. The effect of the spectacle which Mount Sinai presented 
upon the people is here described. We may suppose that the awful 
silence which prevailed during the delivery of the law was followed 
by a return of the thunderings and the lightnings, and the clang of the 
trumpet. All the people saw. The verb is here used in a pregnant 
sense. They saw the scene which was accompanied by the dread 
crashing of the elements and the thrilling notes of that unearthly 
cornet. They drew hack and stood afar off. The solemnities of the 
divine presence beget the feeling of reverential awe, under the influ- 
ence of which they retire to a respectful distance. They have no 
more any doubt of the divine commission of Moses ; and they entreat, 
by their elders, that God would speak to them through Moses, and 
not directly and personally, lest they die. Human consciousness in 
its fallen state shrinks from immediate contact with God (vs. 20). 
Moses pronounces the encouraging word, Fear not, a word long re- 
membered afterward (Hag. ii. 5). To prove you. The test of their 
fidelity to the Lord their God was. the law which was now promulgated 
from Sinai with all the advantages of the immediate presence and 



EXODUS XX. 18-24. 241 

audible voice of God. Faith in God is a dead form, if it do not bring 
forth the fruit of penitence and obedience. Hence he sets before them 
in the most conspicuous light the standard of a perfect morality that 
he may prove them, that his fear may be before them that they sin not. 
The signal demonstrations of his presence and power will leave them 
without the excuse of any obscurity in the oracles they have received, 
and awaken a salutary sense of the infinite majesty and sanctity of the 
Supreme (vs. 21). And 3foses dreio near to the thick darkness where 
God was. We learn from the supplementary narrative of Deuter- 
onomy that Moses communicated the petition of the people to the 
Lord, who was pleased therewith, and gave them leave to retire to 
their tents (Deut. v. 28). 

22-26. The altar. The paragraph now before us is the close 
after the ten words and the preface to the legislation of the three 
following chapters. It is in the form of a message to Israel. It 
reminds them of the palpable fact that he had spoken to them from 
heaven. 23. Ye shall not make with me any idol. The construction 
here is remarkable. The first " make " has no object expressed, ft 
is designed to make emphatic the accompanying " with me " by which 
the exclusive unity of the Godhead is intimated. The object is then 
supplied and the verb repeated. 

24. An altar. This prohibition to make any image of God is de- 
signed to introduce the permission or injunction to make an altar to 
him. The only outward thing in the salvation of the soul is the 
atonement. The necessity of propitiation is accordingly symbolized 
in the altar. The mercy of God needs no type, and has its place in 
the proclamation on Siani. The propitiation which makes way for 
his mercy to the penitent sinner by satisfying his justice, has its type 
in the altar and the sacrifice thereon. This special provision for the 
salvation of sinners, though it would be out of place in the ten words, 
yet forms the main substance of all that is shadowed forth in the whole 
ceremonial law. It therefore comes in here as the necessary ante- 
cedent of all acceptable approaching to God and walking with him. 
The word altar connects Moses and the people of Israel with Noah 
and his rescued family (Gen. viii. 20). Of earth. Earth was the 
scene of man's sin ; it is also to be the scene of the sacrifice for sin. 
The altar of earth is merely the definite spot of this earth set apart 
31 



242 THE CIVIL LAW. 

for sacrifice, and elevated to raise the offering towards God, who is in 
heaven. Thy burnt offerings. The two great classes of offerings are 
the expiatory and the eucharistic. The former is here represented by 
the inbs> or burnt-offering (Gen. viii. 20), which implies on the part 
of the offerer the confession of guilt and of the need of an atonement. 
And thy 'peace-offering. This is that species of offering which was 
designed to express the thanksgiving of the offerer for peace with God 
or any of its attendant benefits. It was also expressive of devotedness 
to him. Thy sheep and thine oxen. The ordinary kinds of animals 
employed in sacrifice. Goats were included along with the sheep. In 
every place where I record my name, where I cause my name to be 
remembered and invoked. This intimates some change of the place 
where the altar was to be erected. The patriarchs were wont to build 
an altar wherever God appeared to them. I will come unto thee and 
bless thee. The presence and the bounty of God are here promised. 

25, 26. The altar may be of stones, if unhewn. It is thus entirely 
a work of God, and so in keeping with that propitiation which comes 
entirely from God. If thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou dost pollute it. 
This teaches, by a figure, that the sinner only defiles, and therefore 
cannot have any part in atoning. The altar of rude stone was common 
among the ancient nations. Motives of decency dictated that the altar 
was not to be approached by steps. 

The prescription here concerning the altar appears in the most 
general form. The details of legislation on this subject will appear in 
their proper place. 



XII. THE CIVIL LAW. — Ex. xxi.-xxiv. 
CHAP. XXI— LAWS OF SERVITUDE AND PERSONAL SAFETY. 

XXI. 1. And these are the judgments which thou shalt set 
before them. 2. When thou gettest a Hebrew servant, six 
years shall he serve ; and in the seventh he shall go out free 
for nothing. 3. If he come in by himself, he shall go out by 
himself; if he be married, then his wife shall go out with him. 



EXODUS XXI. 243 

4. If his master give him a wife, and she have borne him sons 
or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her masters, 
and he shall go out by himself. 5. And if the servant shall 
plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children ; I will 
not go out free : 6. Then his master shall bring him unto 
God : and shall bring him to the door or to the door-post ; 
and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl ; and he 
shall serve forever. § 32. 

7. And when a man sells his daughter to be a maid-servant, 
she shall not go out as the men-servants do. 8. If she please 
not her master, who hath not betrothed her, then he shall let 
her be redeemed : to sell her to a strange people he shall have 
no power, when he hath deceived her. 9. And if he betroth 
her to his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of 
daughters. 10. If he take him another wife, her food, her rai- 
ment, and her duty of marriage shall he not diminish. 11. 
And if he do not these three unto her, then shall she go out 
free without money. § 33. 

12. He that smiteth a man, so that he die, shall be surely 
put to death. 13. And if a man lie not in wait, but God 
deliver him into his hand, then I will appoint thee a place 
whither he shall flee. § 34. 

14. But if a man come presumptuously on his neighbor to 
slay him with guile, thou shalt take him from mine altar to 
put him to death. § 35. 

15. And he that smiteth his father or his mother shall surely 
be put to death. § 36. 

16. And he that stealeth a man and selleth him, or in whose 
hand he is found, shall surely be put to death. § 37. 

17. He that curseth his father or his mother shall surely be 
put to death. § 38. 

18. And if men quarrel, and one smite another with a stone 



244 THE CIVIL LAW. 

or with his fist, and he die not, but is laid on his bed : 19. If 
he rise and walk abroad on his staff, then shall he that smote 
him be quit ; only he shall pay for his loss of time, and cause 
him to be thoroughly healed. § 39. 

20. And if a man smite his servant or his maid with a rod, 
and he die under his hand, he shall surely be punished. 
21. But if he continue a day or two, he shall not be punished ; 
for he is his money. § 40. 

22. And if men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that 
her fruit depart from her, and no mischief follow, he shall 
be surely fined, according as the woman's husband will lay 
upon him, and he shall give as the judges determine. 23. And 
if mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life ; 24. Eye 
for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot ; 25. 
Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. § 41. 

26. And if a man smite the eye of his servant, or the eye of 
his maid, that it perish, he shall let him go free for his eye's 
sake. 27. And if he knock out the tooth of his servant, or the 
tooth of his maid, he shall let him go free for his tooth's 

sake. If 34 - 

28. And if an ox gore a man or a woman, and he die, the 
ox shall be surely stoned, and his flesh shall not be eaten ; but 
the owner of the ox shall be quit. 29. But if the ox were 
wont to gore in time past, and it hath been testified to his 
owner, and he hath not kept him in, and he hath killed a man 
or a woman, the ox shall be stoned, and his owner also shall 
be put to death. 30. If a price be laid on him, then he shall 
give for the ransom of his life whatsoever is laid upon him. 
31. Whether he gore a son or gore a daughter, according to this 
judgment shall it be done unto him. 32. If the ox gore a 
servant or a maid, he shall give unto his master thirty shekels 
of silver, and the ox shall be stoned. § 42. 



EXODUS XXI. 1. 245 

33. And if a man shall open a pit, or if a man dig a pit and 
cover it not, and an ox or an ass fall therein, 34. The owner 
of the pit shall make it good : the money he shall return to its 
owner, and the dead beast shall be his. § 43. 

35. And if one man's ox gore another's, and it die, then 
they shall sell the live ox and divide the money of it ; and the 
dead ox also they shall divide. 36. Or if it be known that 
the ox was wont to gore in time past, and his owner did not 
keep him in, he shall surely pay ox for ox, and the dead shall 
be his. § 44. 

1. And these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them. 
This is the heading of the four chapters which contain the civil polity 
of the Jewish theocracy. It will aid very much the intelligent perusal 
of these chapters if we mark the orderly arrangement of the topics 
of which they treat. The main features of this arrangement have 
been grasped by the Hebrew and Christian expositors. With some 
variance from the usual division, and some endeavor after a more ex- 
tensive elucidation, it is exhibited in the following scheme : 

I. Of Servitude, xxi. 1-11, 5th Commandment. 

II. Of Personal Safety, . xxi. 12-32, 6th 

m. Of Property, xxi. 33 - xxii. 14, . 8th 

IV. Of Conjugal Fidelity, xxii. 15-30, 7th 

V. Of Veracity, xxiii. 1-9,.. 9th 

VI. Of Set Times, xxiii. 10-19, 4th 

VII. Of Piety, xxiii. 20-33, 10th 

The first of these sections refers to the duties of masters and servants, 
and is therefore a natural expansion of the fifth commandment, which 
relates to parents and children. The second treats of injuries destroying 
or endangering life, and hence comes under the sixth commandment. 
The third, relating to property, is an expansion of the eighth. The 
fourth is of a somewhat diversified character ; but its various precepts 
bear upon the marriage vow, either between husband and wife, or 
between God and his people. The injunctions concerning the stranger, 
the widow and orphan, and the poor will naturally come under the 
latter head, if we remember that God avouches himself the guardian 



246 THE CIVIL LAW. 

of all such. This section is thus analogous to the seventh command- 
ment. The fifth section, on truthfulness and integrity in witness* 
bearing and judging, developes the ninth commandment. The sixth, 
on the observance of set times, finds its germ in the fourth word of 
the Decalogue. The seventh, on the acknowledging, worshipping, and 
serving of Jehovah alone, w T ho searches the hearts and estimates the 
motives, is closely allied with the tenth commandment. 

It follows that the civil code is capable of being divided into seven 
sections, corresponding with the last seven precepts of the Decalogue, 
though exhibiting a different order. The order depends in each case 
on the material to be arranged and the end to be attained. There 
the matter was the moral relation between the Creator and a race of 
intelligent creatures, and the end a compend of universal law. Here 
the matter is the moral relation between the Sovereign and his subjects, 
and the end a code of civil jurisprudence. Here the subject of law is 
regarded, (1) as a master; (2) as a neighbor; (3) as an owner; (4) as 
a consort ; (5) as a speaker ; (6) as a disposer of time ; and (7) as a child 
of God. The basis of this arrangement appears to be a gradation in the 
rights and responsibilities of man. It is manifest that the first section 
touches upon his lowest stage and the last upon his highest. The serf 
is one who is denuded of some part of his natural rights. The neigh- 
bor is in possession of that great original right of one creature against 
every other, namely, the inviolability of his person. The owner is 
invested with certain additional rights, acquired originally by the grant 
of the Creator, which is the only just title to property. The consort 
indicates a still higher degree of responsibility, as the social compact 
which it involves brings into view reason and will, and fidelity and 
trust. The speaker is endowed with the organ of that sociality which 
is implied in the consort. The occupant of time has within his power 
the set time of meeting, private or public, which affords the possibility 
of social conference. The child of God rises to the highest privileges 
of social happiness in the great family of heaven and earth. A piece 
of composition that admits of such analysis must have an internal 
harmony and unity. 

Bertheau, and after him Baumgarten, maintain that as the "ten 
words " constitute the great Decalogue, so each of these sections forms a 
minor decalogue. There is, we conceive, some tenable ground for this 



EXODUS XXI. 1-11. 247 

subdivision. This brings out in a striking light the wonderful system 
lying in the structure of this seemingly unconnected collection of in- 
junctions. Seven groups of ten precepts each form the fundamental 
polity of the commonwealth of Israel. 

The judgments. These are decisions on points of law that may 
arise between man and man. They are therefore authoritative sentences 
or precepts for the regulation of civil society. 

I. LAWS OF SERVITUDE. 

2-11. Here are ten verses containing the first decade of laws. 
They relate to serfdom, or the degraded state of man in which he is 
stripped of some of his natural rights. The only natural rights are 
rights of person, such as liberty, life, and inviolability of person. 
Offenders against the law are in all states deprived of some or most of 
these rights as the penalty of their offence. Even insolvency in some 
states has involved the loss of liberty and life. Captives in war have 
been often treated as offenders against the state, and consigned to 
bondage for life. It must be admitted that the withdrawal of freedom, 
or the imposition of labor for a term of years or for life, according to 
the degree of the offence, is a legitimate mode of state punishment. 
Hence serfdom and forced labor are warrantable in the case of crime. 
Even the apprenticeship of six years for the acquisition of handicraft, 
or any other craft, such as domestic service, with proper restrictions, 
might be an improvement on our social system. And in ancient times, 
when servitude merely meant the performance of service with the 
understood condition of receiving food and raiment in return, many 
were glad to accept the terms without stipulating for a personal freedom 
which was to them of no practical value. The present decade of laws 
does not institute servitude, or commit itself to the approbation of 
every kind of bondage. It merely implies that some form of it, such 
as that of criminals under correction, or the dependant who voluntarily 
enters into it, is admissible. It recognizes the fact of its existence, 
without entering into the origin of this degraded condition. The 
decade of precepts is divided into two fives, each beginning with when 
(^3, vs. 2, 7), followed by four ifs (dx). The former five relate to the 
man-servant, the latter to the maid-servant. 



248 THE CIVIL LAW. 

2. If thou get, acquire in any way, it may be by the voluntary offer 
of the individual, who sometimes sold himself into servitude, such as is 
here contemplated, as a means of improving his temporal condition 
(Lev. xxv. 39 ; Deut. xv. 12). A Hebrew servant. A servant is 
merely a laborer. The term does not of itself indicate the loss of 
freedom. We see no reason why the term Hebrew should not be 
taken here in its full extent of meaning as a descendant of Heber, at 
least as far as this relationship still lived in the memories of men, and 
no disturbing event interfered with its application. We have no doubt 
that in process of time the term was gradually narrowed in application, 
until it came to be of the same extent, though not precisely of the 
same meaning, with Israelite or Jew. This first decision limits the 
period of servitude for a Hebrew to six years. As, however, all the 
Hebrew servants became free in the jubilee, or fiftieth year (Lev. xxv. 
10, 40), this period would be shortened if it commenced within the 
six years immediately before the jubilee. It is plain from this statute 
that the involuntary servitude of a Hebrew could not be prolonged 
beyond six years. He then goes out free for nothing, or without any 
redemption. Nay, it is further enjoined in Deut. xv. 12, 18, that he 
shall be furnished with a stock to enable him to enter upon a life of 
self-dependence. 

3. This verse contains two enactments, that are the complements of 
one whole. He that comes in by himself, with his body only, shall go 
out by himself. But if he come in married, his wife also shall go out 
with him at the end of the six years. This includes, no doubt, the 
family, if any, as they go with the mother. 

4. The fourth decides that iix case his master give him a wife, she 
and her children shall remain with the master when the husband goes 
free. The wife belonged to the master. The children go with her 
who can tend them in their infant years, and sustain them out of her 
master's abundance. The difference in condition between the husband 
and his wife does not however necessarily dissolve the tie of wedlock 
between them. The husband's " going out by himself," simply means 
Ahat his wife does not share his freedom with him. It does not of itself 
dissolve the marriage bond. They may continue to live as husband 
and wife, though it is possible that, in the loose manners of the times, 
the connection would be sometimes entirely broken off. The liberation 



EXODUS XXL 5-11. 249 

of the husband may have made it inconvenient, difficult, or sometimes 
impossible for them to live together. Such a case is provided for in 
the following enactment. 

5, 6. The fifth clause of this section presents a very agreeable aspect 
of servitude as existing in Israel. Shall plainly say, declare in all the 
earnestness and warmth of his heart. / love, I have learned to love 
my master. I will not go out free. Here is a case of voluntary serv- 
itude, and that not for a limited term of years. 6. Shall bring him 
unto God. Here is the first mention of the magistrate in the common- 
wealth of Israel. The supreme ruler in this singular community is 
God himself. His ministers, governors, and judges, therefore, speak 
with an authority paramount to all other. The Sept. aptly renders 
7rpos to KpLT-qpiov rov ®€ov, to the court of God. The freed man is to 
make his solemn declaration " I will not go free " before the authorities 
of the land, who will see to it that the act is of his own free will. To 
the door or to the post, whichever is the more suitable. The latter is 
always available, but the door-leaf may sometimes be wanting. His 
master shall do the act, as the chief party concerned. Bore his ear 
through with an awl. The awl through the ear is to be driven into 
the door or the post (Deut. xv. 17), to signify the permanent attach- 
ment of the bondsman to the family of his master. And he shall serve 
for ever. Josephus and the Rabbins explain this to be a service till 
the next jubilee. This seems natural, as the phrase " for ever " is to 
be explained according to the nature of that to which it it is applied. 
It could not in this case extend longer than the natural life of the 
servant. 

7-11. These five verses contain the law of the maid-servant. To 
sell his daughter to be a maid-servant was partly the resource of 
poverty and partly the custom of the country. It is plain that the 
maid-servant so bought was to have the place of a wife or a concubine, 
either to her purchaser or his son. In either case she is not to go out 
as the men-servants do. If she please her master, she has an acknowl- 
edged position of right in his house, which the marriage bond secures 
to her. 

8. If she phase him not, and accordingly he do not betroth her or 
give her this rightful place, he shall let her be redeemed by some of her 
kiDdred. He is not at liberty to sell her to a foreigner, when he has 
32 



250 THE CIVIL LAW. 

deceived her by refusing her the rights of marriage. This last clause 
is only a circumstance necessitating her release. The illegality of 
selling her to a foreigner rests on the fact of her Israelitish descent. 

9. If he betroth her to his son, she shall be treated as a daughter and 
not as a bondsmaid. She is to have all the privileges of a wife. 

10. If he take him another wife. This may refer either to the father 
or the son. The latter seems preferable. A second wife is not to 
exclude the former from the rights of food, raiment, and conjugal 
intercourse. Here again we find the law not instituting either polyg- 
amy or concubinage, but guarding the rights of the wife. 

11. If these three rights be withheld, the bondsmaid is to go free 
without any redemption. A servitude in which the bondsmaid might 
become the honored wife of the master or of his son, or in case of 
neglect be released from her bondage, was thus secured for the poor 
daughter of Israel. 

EL. LAWS OF PERSONAL SAFETY. 

12-32. From man divested of the natural right of freedom we 
advance to man invested with the natural right of personal inviolabil- 
ity. This is the most fundamental right that belongs to intelligent 
creatures. As they come from the hand of the Creator, one individual 
has no right to harm another, and each has a right to be left unharmed 
by every other. The Creator has the authority and the obligation to 
enforce this law upon the intelligent portion of his creatures ; and in 
a fallen state civil government is instituted on the ultimate basis of the 
patriarchal authority to check its infriiigment and guard personal 
safety. The special form of personal violence prohibited in this set 
of judgments is injury to life or limb. It is therefore an expansion of 
the sixth commandment. The injury may come directly from our 
neighbor (vs. 12-27), or indirectly from his ox (vs. 28-32). 

12-14. Intentional killing, or murder, is placed first. The general 
rule is first laid down. The murderer shall surely be put to death. 
No satisfaction or pecuniary fine was to be taken for the life of a mur- 
derer. The rich and the poor were to stand here on a footing of 
perfect equality (Num. xxxv. 31). Then the two cases of premedi- 
tated and unpremeditated manslaying are distinguished. If a man lie 



EXODUS XXI. 12-14. 251 

not in wait. If the intention be not harbored in his mind ; if a plot be 
not laid. But God deliver him into his hand. Here the particular 
providence of God is recognized in the most emphatic manner. This 
clause is merely the complement of that which precedes, If the slayer 
had no hand in bringing about the meeting, then it falls under the 
general head of the divine administration. It is only the meeting of 
the parties that is here referred to this head. The broader question 
of the occurrence of all events, moral and physical, in subordination to 
divine providence is not here mooted. A place whither he shall jlee. 
This contains a reference to the avenger of blood (bxa d-j btfh , Num. 
xxxv. 9-32), the nearest of kin, who was by primeval custom ante- 
cedent to all statute law entitled and bound to maintain the cause of 
the deceased in general, and in the case of death by violence to pursue 
the slayer, and, if he overtook him, to put him to death. The life of 
man is infinitely precious, both because he has been created in the 
image of God, and because he is responsible hereafter for what is done 
here. Hence even unintentional homicide is regarded as an awful 
deed, which is not to be passed over without check or censure. But 
though the avenger of blood is recognized as the minister of a prompt 
and natural justice, yet a way of escape is opened for the unintentional 
manslayer by the institution of six cities of refuge (Josh. xx. 7, 8), 
so situated that the fugitive had not more than twenty-five or thirty 
English miles at most to flee. And as in most cases he would have a 
start of from one to twenty-four hours, he would generally be beyond 
the reach of his pursuer in the course of a day. The cities of refuge 
were all Levitical, and therefore in a peculiar sense belonging to God, 
who shields the unintentional manslayer. The elders or council (S"fl?) 
of the city of refuge shall receive him, and not surrender him to the 
avenger of blood (Josh. xx. 4, 5). They shall hand him over to the 
council (n^3?) or elders of his own city (Num. xxxv. 24, 25 ; Deut. x. 
12), who shall decide whether he be guilty of manslaughter or murder, 
and in the former case " restore him to the city of his refuge," and in 
the latter " deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he 
may die." 14. The murderer, as he acts from malice prepense, with 
presumptuous daring, or unmanly guile, is here, by way of contrast 
with the milder sentence of the unpremeditating manslayer, emphati- 
cally condemned to death, from which not even the altar of God, much 



252 THE civil LAW. 

less the city of refuge, shall shelter him. This indicates both the fact 
that the altar was already regarded as a sacred and almost inviolable 
asylum for the defenceless, on account of its intimate connection with 
the Supreme Being, and the reason why Levitical cities, which 
belonged specially to God, were selected as cities of refuge. 

15. In this second enactment we pass from the murderous stroke to 
the blow of violence inflicted on a father or a mother. To strike a 
parent, even though the blow be not fatal, is to lift the hand of violence 
against the author of our being. It is akin to rebellion against God 
himself, the great Father of all. It is here regarded with such abhor- 
rence as to be visited with the penalty of death. We learn from this 
and other passages (vs. 17 ; Deut. xxi. 18-21) that wilful and obstinate 
disrespect to parents was a crime that came under the cognizance of 
the civil judge. 

1 6. The third judgment condemns the manstealer to death. From 
the violent blow we proceed to the violent seizure. To steal a man 
and make merchandise of him is by its present connection regarded as 
aiming a blow at his life. It is, at all events, doing violence to his 
person, and therefore comes naturally under the sixth commandment. 
It differs entirely from the treatment of one who has come into legiti- 
mate bondage, to which the previous section is devoted. This enact- 
ment leads to the remarkable conclusion that the stealing or selling 
of a free man without his fault, or against his will, was in the polity 
of Israel a crime of the deepest dye ; and accordingly that lawful 
servitude could only arise from the consent or the crime of the serf 
(see on vs. 2-11). This form of the law differs from the correspond- 
ing one in Deut. xxiv. 7 in the universality of its application. 

17. The preceding enactments refer to the hand of meditated 
violence ; the fourth to the tongue. Some copies of the Sept., regard- 
ing the parents as the point of connection, transpose the sixteenth and 
seventeenth verses. But the Hebrew arrangement rests on the more 
fundamental gradation from the hand to the tongue. Cursing father 
or mother is a crime cognate with the breach of the third command- 
ment. The legislator evidently takes a comprehensive view of the 
principle involved in the sixth commandment, similar to that of our 
Lord in the sermon on the Mount (Matt. v. 21-26). Hence " cursing," 
wishing evil to a parent, is treated as a most flagrant breach of this 



EXODUS XXL 17-25. 253 

commandment. It violates the majesty of God, of whom the parent 
is the natural representative. 

18, 19. In this fifth "judgment" from malice prepense, we proceed 
to sudden outbursts of violence arising from strife or passion. The 
present case refers to strife or angry debate between equals. From 
words they come to blows. A bruise is inflicted with a stone or the 
fist, which does not cause death, and yet confines the sufferer to his 
couch. Here both parties may be culpable ; and if the disabled man 
so far recover as to walk about on his staff, the striker is only to pay 
for the loss of time and the costs of the remedy. If, however, death 
ensue, either in the strife or before he leave his bed, the case is provided 
for by the first enactment of this section (vs. 12-14). It will come 
under the head of manslaughter, unless malice prepense can be proved. 

20, 21. The sixth law refers to sudden violence on the part of a 
master. The chastisement of a servant, or even a child, with a rod was 
in perfect harmony with the allowed custom of the times. If, therefore, 
death under his hand should follow, it was to be presumed that the 
master did not intend to kill his servant. He shall surely he punished. 
If he had without intention slain a free man, he would have fled to the 
city of refuge, and remained there till the death of the high priest. 
In the case of a bondsman, then, we cannot suppose, with the Talmud, 
that the penalty was death by the sword. In the absence of an 
avenger of blood we presume the elders of his city would examine 
whether the act was murder or manslaughter, and deal with him 
according to the spirit of the first enactment (vs. 12-14). This would 
involve at least banishment to the nearest city of refuge for the usual 
time. But it is possible that death resulting from the excess of a 
legitimate mode of chastisement was punished by a fine of thirty 
shekels or upwards, the average value of a slave, along with the cost 
of burial and the maintenance of the surviving family. This is favored 
by the decision that if the slave survive a few days it is to be pre- 
sumed that he did not intend to compass his death, and the loss of the 
slave is to be counted as a fine for the abuse of power. 

22-25. This seventh decision passes to bodily injuries that fall short 
of the loss of life. In the case of strife or bodily conflict it is not 
unnatural for the softer sex to interfere by their intreaties or personal 
efforts to restore peace or protect the party in whom they are interested. 



254 TH E CIVIL LAW. 

A woman with child may thus be injured, and abortion take place with- 
out any further mischief resulting. The offender is in this case to be 
fined according to the damages laid on by the husband and regulated 
and enforced by the judges. The rendering of the Sept. fxera d^ioS/xaro? 
is free, but according to the sense. Some understand " her fruit de- 
parting from her " of premature birth, and refer the " mischief" to the 
loss of either the mother's or the child's life. 23. If mischief follow, 
the decision is, " thou shalt give life for life." The lex talionis, or law 
of retaliation, is here laid down as the great principle by which the 
magistrate is to be guided in the administration of justice. A great 
deal of unreasonable obloquy has been heaped upon this law, as if it 
inculcated or implied the right of private revenge. A little reflection 
will show that it is the simple and only principle of all retributive 
justice. If two men were the only intelligent beings in existence. 
neither would have any right to hurt or apply any force to the other. 
On the other hand the law of self-love would suggest the obligation to 
love the other as himself. If the one did injure the other, the latter 
would not thereby acquire any right to injure the former to the same 
or to any amount, or to quench or abate the feeling of benevolence 
already entertained towards him. But he would have the right of 
laying his cause before the ultimate fountain of all authority. And it 
is clear as day that the Creator is the supreme judge of all his creatures, 
and is bound by the simple law of equity to indemnify the sufferer and 
to impose an adequate penalty on the offender. This, and this alone, 
is the true import of the lex talionis. It is merely the law of equity 
expressed thus : as is the offence, such is to be the penalty. But its 
adminstrator is not the private individual, but the duly authorized 
magistrate. The error of many Jews in our Lord's time (Matt. v. 
38-48), and of the carnal mind in all times, is to assume the right and 
indulge the spirit of private revenge, to the extinction of that spirit of 
love which ought to actuate the breast of one intelligent being towards 
another. But this does not touch the abstract principle of equity, 
or the authority and obligation of the civil magistrate to maintain it 
between man and man. 24. The arrangement of the members here is 
obvious. 25. The fire, the sword or other sharp instrument, and the 
fist or some blunt instrument inflict these injuries. It is expressly 
stated (Num. xxxv. 31, 32) that no satisfaction (1B3, expiation, redemp- 



EXODUS XXI. 26-32. 255 

tion) is to be taken for the penalties of murder and manslaughter. 
This implies that satisfaction or commutation of punishment was known 
and practised, and that it was admissible in other cases. 

26, 27. The eighth enactment provides for the case of a slave being 
mutilated by his master. The loss of an eye or a tooth by violence is 
to be compensated by the emancipation of the slave. This is a clear 
case of commutation. These verses in the Hebrew close an open 
parasha, or greater section, obviously because the legislator now passes 
from injuries done by men to injuries inflicted by cattle. But we con- 
ceive that injuries done to men and injuries to property form the 
fundamental basis of division. 

28-31. The ninth judgment refers to the goring of a free man by 
an ox. If death ensue, the ox is to be stoned, and his flesh is not to be 
eaten. The loss of the ox is to stand for the penalty of the owner, 
if he be otherwise blameless. The law is remarkably earnest in the 
protection of human life. 29. If the ox be dangerous, and the owner 
have been advised of it and have not kept him in, then the ox is to be- 
stoned, and the owner also put to death. 30. But a commutation of 
punishment is expressly allowed in this case. 31. The child is to- be^ 
equally protected with the full-grown man. 

32. The tenth, and last of this group of laws applies to the case of 
a slave being gored by an ox. The redemption price is in this case 
fixed at thirty shekels of silver. Estimating the shekel at two hundred 
and twenty grains of silver, or about 2s. 3d., we find thirty shekels 
equal to £3 7 s. 6d. If the relative value of silver was formerly greater 
than now, the estimated value of a slave must be proprotionately in- 
creased. Some suppose it was, in the time of Moses, ten or twenty 
times its present value. A freeman above twenty and under sixty 
years of age was estimated at fifty shekels of silver, a woman at thirty. 
For other ages, the estimates varied according to* a fixed rule (Lev. 
xxvii. 1-8). A close section, or minor paragraph of the Hebrew text, 
here terminates, because the laws relative to the ox are not yet com- 
pleted. The laws referring to the defence of life, however, are at this 
point separated from those treating of the protection of property. 
This is, therefore, the second break in this civil code. 

It is here to be noted that the distinction of intentional or uninten- 
tional, which is signalized in the first of these enactments, runs through. 



256 THE CIVIL LAW. 

the whole, and modifies the degree of guilt and the amount of the 
penalty. 

m. LAWS OF PROPERTY. 

xxi. 33-xxii. 14 (15). From man invested with the bare rights of 
nature we now rise to man endowed with the acquired rights of 
property. Adam, as soon as he came from his Maker's hand, had the 
right of personal inviolability. As soon as his Maker made him a 
formal grant of all the trees of the garden that were suitable for him 
he had received the right of property, which assumed an endless variety 
of forms in the progressive development of the race. 

33, 34. The first "judgment " refers to the case of a man opening a 
pit already made and covered, or digging a pit, and in either case 
leaving it uncovered. If an ox or an ass fall therein and be killed, the 
owner of the pit shall make it good. The money value he shall give 
to the owner of the animal, and himself retain the dead. This is a good 
instance of the lex talionis, varied by commutation, and exhibited as in 
principle the return of an equivalent. 

35, 36. In the second enactment it is provided that where an ox 
gores another to death the owners shall divide equally the value of the 
living and the dead animals. But if the live ox was addicted to goring 
his owner shall pay ox for ox, and the dead shall be his. It is obvious 
that to pay ox for ox is to give either an ox of equal value or the fair 
price of the ox killed. 

In the English version this chapter ends here. This division corres- 
ponds with a minor section of the Masoretic text, and with the sense. 
But a more appropriate ending for the chapter would have been at 
vs. 34, where the legislator passes from the subject of personal safety 
to that of property. 



CHAP. XXII. — LAWS OF PROPERTY AND CONJUGAL FIDELITY. 

18. tpsaa enchanter or sorcerer (vii. 11). ^T. wizard, one wise 
in black arts, aix the ghost of the departed conjured up to give 
answers concerning the future. These two terms generally occur 
together, and refer to the necromancer. 



exodus xxn. 257 

20. wn to prohibit from common use, to devote to God without 
possibility of redemption (Lev. xxvii. 28, 29), and hence utterly to 
destroy and exterminate. 

29. fi^bri the fulness of the corn harvest ; the first-fruits of this 
fulness offered to God in grateful acknowledgment. Sa'n the tear, 
the trickling juice of the fruit-tree harvest, of which the first-fruits 
were also to be presented to the Lord. 

XXII. 1. If a man steal an ox or a sheep, and kill it or sell 
it, he shall restore five oxen for an ox and four sheep for a 
sheep. 

2. If the thief be found breaking in, and be smitten that he 
die, there shall be no blood for him. 3. If the sun be risen 
upon him, there shall be blood for him ; he shall make full 
restitution ; if he have nothing, then he shall be sold for his 
theft. 4. If the theft be certainly found in his hand alive, be 
it ox, or ass, or sheep, he shall restore double. § 45. 

5. If a man graze on a field or vineyard, and put in his 
beast and graze on another's field, of the best of his field and 
of the best of his vineyard shall he restore. § 46. 

6. If a fire break out and catch on thorns, and a stack of 
corn, or the standing corn, or the field be consumed, he that 
kindleth the fire shall surely make restitution. § 47. 

7. If a man shall deliver unto his neighbor money or stuff 
to keep, and it be stolen out of the man's house ; if the thief 
be found, he shall restore double. 8. If the thief be not found, 
then the master of the house shall be brought unto God, to 
swear that he hath not put his hand unto his neighbor's goods. 

9. For all manner of trespass, for ox, for ass, for sheep, for 
raiment, for anything lost, if one say that that is it, the cause 
of both parties shall come unto God ; and whom God shall 
condemn, he shall restore double to his neighbor. § 48. 

10. If a man deliver unto his neighbor an ass, or an ox, or 

33 



2o8 THE CIVIL LAW. 

a sheep, or any beast to keep, and it die or be hurt or taken 
away, no man seeing ; 11. An oath of the Lord shall be between 
them both, that he hath not put his hand to his neighbor's 
goods ; and the owner of it shall accept this ; and he shall 
not make it good. 12. And if it be stolen from him, he shall 
make it good to the owner thereof. 13. If it be torn in pieces, 
he shall bring it for witness : he shall not make good that 
which was torn. ^f 35. 

14. And if a man borrow aught of his neighbor, and it be 
hurt or die ; if the owner thereof be not with it, he shall surely 
make it good. 15. If the owner thereof be with it, he shall 
not make it good ; if it be hired, it went for its hire. § 49. 

16. And if a man entice a maid that is not betrothed and 
lie with her, he shall surely endow her to be his wife. 17. If 
her father utterly refuse to give her unto him, he shall pay 
money according to the dowry of virgins. § 50. 

18. Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. 

19. Whosoever lieth with a beast shall surely be put to 
death. § 51. 

20. He that sacrificeth to any God, save unto the Lord 
only, shall be devoted to death. 

21. And thou shalt not vex a stranger or oppress him ; for 
ye were strangers in the land of Mizraim. 22. Ye shall not 
afflict any widow or fatherless child. 23. If thou afflict them 
in any wise, and they cry at all unto me, I will surely hear 
their cry. 24. And my wrath shall wax hot, and I will slay 
you with the sword : and your wives shall be widows and your 
children fatherless. ^f 36. 

25. If thou lend money to any of my people that is poor by 
thee, thou shalt not be to him as a usurer : thou shalt not 
lay upon him usury. 

26. If thou at all take thy neighbor's raiment to pledge, 



exodus xxn. 1-4. 259 

thou shalt restore it to him at the going down of the sun. 27. 
For that is his only covering ; that is his raiment for his skin : 
wherein shall he sleep ? and it will come to pass that he shall 
cry unto me and I will hear ; for I am merciful. § 52. 

28. Thou shalt not revile God nor curse a prince among 
thy people. 

29. Thou shalt not delay the first-fruits of thy corn and of 
thy wine : the first-born of thy sons shalt thou give unto me. 
30. So shalt thou do with thine ox, and thy sheep : seven days 
shall it be with its dam ; on the eighth day shalt thou give 
it me. 

31. And ye shall be holy men unto me ; neither shall ye 
eat flesh that is torn of beasts in the fields ; ye shall cast it 
to the dog. § 53 

1. In this third law we proceed from injuries to property arising 
from inadvertence or negligence to those which are intentional. The 
case of the thief having got off with his booty and killed or sold it 
is placed first. The fivefold and fourfold restitution is intended to 
cover the time, trouble, and cost which the theft may in this case 
have occasioned over and above the mere loss of the animal stolen. 
The theft of an ox involves in this respect a somewhat greater 
accompanying loss than that of a sheep, and this is allowed for in the 
fivefold restitution. 

This verse is attached to the preceding chapter in the original, 
seemingly because, like the previous verses, it treats of oxen. But as 
it treats of theft it is preferable, with the English version, to connect it 
with the following verses, which refer to the same subject. 

2—4. The fourth enactment treats of a thief caught in the act. This 
gives rise to three cases : (1.) He loses his life by night. In this case 
no blood is to be shed for him. By his nightly intrusion he endangers 
life directly or indirectly. His life is the forfeit of his intended crime. 
(2.) If he be smitten by day, the slayer shall suffer ; because there is 
no necessity for his death. He has been seen, and if he get off he can 
be overtaken by justice, and compelled to make restitution as already 



260 THE CIVIL LAW. 

prescribed. If he have nothing, and therefore cannot make the required 
restitution, he is to be sold for his theft. This is a clear case of servi- 
tude being the judicial penalty of crime. (3.) If the thing stolen be 
found alive in his hand, and therefore without the trouble and cost of 
a tedious search, he shall restore double. 

5. The fifth decision regards the introduction by fraud or negligence 
of cattle into the field, especially the grain-field or vineyard, of a 
neighbor. It is presumed that the damage occurs by carelessness. 
At all events compensation to the full amount is to be made from the 
best of the trespasser's field or vineyard. 

6. The sixth refers to the breaking out of fire in a stack, or standing 
corn, or a field. It is customary in pastoral districts to kindle fires in 
the fields at all seasons ; and it is not unusual to set fire to the herbage 
for the purpose of promoting the fertility of the soil. If the wind and 
the lie of the field are not attentively considered, there is much danger 
of the fire spreading either to the standing or to the garnered grain. 
The careless kindler of the fire is to make restitution for the damage 
done. This is analogous to the preceding case. The other cases also 
in this section go together to a certain extent in pairs. 

7. 8. The following determinations refer to the entrusting of prop- 
erty, either as a deposit or a loan. In the present case, money or 
articles of any kind are entrusted to another. If the thing entrusted 
be stolen, and the thief be caught, he shall restore double. If not, the 
trustee is called upon to make oath before God that he has not put 
his hand to his neighbor's goods. If he can do so, he is acquitted. 

9. But if he do not clear himself in this way, he comes under the 
present regulation. This applies to any kind of thing missing, or said 
to be missing, that is found with a man who . denies it, while it is 
challenged by another as that very thing which he has lost. This is 
evidently a case of some complication and difficulty. It is to come 
before the delegates of the Most High -for adjudication, and he with 
whom the article missing is adjudged to be found, though denied, is to 
restore double. 

10-13. This regulation refers to animals committed to the keeping 
of another. The Rabbins make a distinction between paid and unpaid 
trustees ; the latter being entrusted merely with money or articles that 
require only house-room, the former with cattle that require sustenance. 



EXODUS XXTT. 10-17. 261 

It is obvious that in this case the caretaker must be remunerated 
at least for the cost of the animal's keep. If the animal die, or be 
maimed, or carried off secretly, and the guardian make oath that he is 
innocent of the loss, he shall not make it good. 13. If it be torn by a 
wild beast, and he bring the remains of it as a proof, he is to be 
acquitted. 

This verse terminates a major section of the Masoretic text, because 
the next refers not to trusteeship, but to lending. But the two 
following verses relate to property as well as the preceding ; while 
the subsequent verses relate to conjugal fidelity. The major division 
should in this view be placed after the fifteenth verse of the English 
version, or the fourteenth of the Hebrew text. 

14, 15. The tenth regulation of this law section refers to borrowing 
any article or animal from a neighbor. If it be injured or killed in 
the absence of the owner it is to be made good. But if the owner be 
present the thing borrowed is not to be made good ; and if hired, it 
is to go for its hire. 

IV. LAWS ON CONJUGAL FIDELITY. 

16-31. The regulations under tins head are somewhat miscellaneous. 
To give a unity to them we must suppose the relation between God 
and his people to be symbolized by that between husband and wife ; 
and we must regard God as the avowed guardian and representative 
of the stranger, the widow, and the orphan. The covenant between 
God and his people (Gen. ix. 9-17, xv. 18, xvii. 1-24; Ex. vi. 4, 5, 
xix. 5, 6), in which he engages to be their God, and takes them to be 
his people, warrants the former symbol, which becomes frequent in 
the later scriptures. The stranger (Gen. xv. 13 ; Ex. xx. 10), the 
widow and the fatherless are special classes of the unprotected, whom 
God will hear if they be oppressed and cry unto him (Ex. ii. 23, 24, 
iii. 9). 

16-17. The first precept affords protection to the unbetrothed female 
who is enticed or beguiled into unchastity. The enticer shall endow 
her to he his wife. The dowry was a portion given by the bridegroom 
for his bride to her parents (Gen. xxix. 18-20, xxxiv. 12 ; 1 Sam. 
xviii. 25). The present passage favors the supposition that it was 



262 THE CIVIL LAW. 

originally intended for the use of the bride. If the father refuse to 
give her, he shall pay money according to the dowry of virgins. To pay 
money is here to weigh silver which was Dot yet coined. The sum 
afterwards fixed by law was fifty shekels of silver (Deut. xxii. 29). 

18. The second judgment. A wizard ("'SSW*) is one who endeavors 
to accomplish a selfish end by the powers of darkness. The masculine 
form of the term here employed (nsttbp) denotes a sorcerer or en- 
chanter, who employs the charm or muttered chant to bring a preter- 
natural power to his aid (Ex. v. 11). The practiser of such arts, or 
the pretender to them, is by the very fact an apostate from God, a 
breaker of that solemn and gracious covenant which he has made with 
his people, and a traitor to the theocracy under which he lives. And 
his example at least would tempt the people to all these crimes. Such 
a one is, accordingly, not to be suffered to live. The penalty for 
witchcraft is stoning (Lev. xx. 27), and this, no doubt, extended to 
all its forms. The phrase n*r]n K'b is employed to denote the imme- 
diate and extreme necessity of exterminating this lurking form of 
enmity against God and man. The male and female are no doubt 
included in this judgment ; but the wizard seems to have been less 
common than the witch. 

19. The third rule condemns an unnatural crime of the kind that 
rendered Sodom infamous. Such a crime implies a being dead to all 
fear of God as much as to the very instincts of nature. 

20. The fourth law declares the man who sacrifices to any being but 
the true God to be accursed, and therefore given over to extermination. 

21-24. This fifth provision, as well as the two following, has refer- 
ence to the unprotected classes — the stranger, the widow, the fatherless, 
and the poor. Thou shalt not vex. This word signifies to harass by 
unworthy treatment, and is followed by another implying a greater 
degree of violence and injustice. A stranger. While the Lord is 
constrained by the ungodliness of the world to select for himself a 
people whom he may teach and bless, the stranger is to be peculiarly 
welcome among this people, and every facility afforded for their admis- 
sion into all the rights and privileges of the theocracy. Whatever, 
therefore, may have been the conduct of Israel in different periods 
of her history, it is clear that the God of Israel and his ministers are 
to be completely exonerated from the charge of exclusiveness. The 



EXODUS XXII. 21-28. 263 

stranger is not to be discouraged or oppressed, but welcomed to 
sojourn and even to be incorporated in the commonwealth of Israel. 
For ye were strangers. An affecting appeal is here made to the 
bondage which seven weeks could not have effaced from their memo- 
ries. A provision was made, as we have already seen, for the stranger 
being admitted to the ordinance of the Passover (xii. 48), and allowed 
and required to observe the Sabbath (xx. 10). We shall meet with 
other tokens of consideration for the stranger as we proceed (Lev. xix. 
9, xxiii. 22; Deut. xiv. 28, 29, xvi. 11-14, xxiv. 17-22, xxvi. 11-13). 
22. Ye shall not afflict, tread down or oppress. Any widow or father- 
less child. There is a touching nicety and correctness in the use of 
fatherless child for orphan in the English version ; inasmuch as the 
decease of the father leaves both the widow and the child without 
their natural protector and sustainer, whereas the motherless child has 
still the father as its stay. 23, 24. God threatens to be the avenger 
of the widow and the fatherless by bringing the sword of war on the 
ruthless oppressors. 

25. The sixth ordinance requires that no usury or interest be taken 
upon money lent to the poor. The poor may be regarded as a fourth 
class of the dependent, who were exposed to base and cruel wrong in 
ancient times. The Lord declares himself the affectionate and resolute 
guardian of the poor, and inculcates upon his people a regard for the 
feelings of humanity, which had been almost extinguished in the heathen 
world. The lending of money for a percentage to the wealthy for com- 
mercial operations is not contemplated in this precept. 

26, 27. The seventh is the law of pledges, which was much restricted 
in consideration of the poor. The receiver was not at liberty to enter 
the house, but must wait at the door for the pledge (Deut. xxiv. 10-13). 
He must also restore it at sunset. The garment referred to was a large 
shawl or plaid, now called haik, which was worn by day, and was the 
covering of the poor man, who threw himself on his couch with his 
clothes on, by night. The " merciful" God will hear the cry of the 
wretched poor. 

28. The eighth precept condemns the blasphemer. God is here con- 
templated as the author of that providence which dispenses the affairs 
of men. He is virtually a breaker of covenant with God who rails at 
his providential dealings. The selfish heart is prone to murmur against 



264 THE CIVIL LAW. 

the Almighty, whether he be regarded as the withholder of prosperity 
or the restrainer of crime. But the afflicted poor and the disappointed 
oppressor are alike warned against the temptation to blaspheme the 
name of God. The prince is conjoined with God as the minister of 
his law and the magistrate of his people in a theocratic state. The 
responsibility to rule for God belongs to all sovereigns, and the obli- 
gation to honor the ruler rests upon all subjects. 

29, 30. The ninth is the general law of first-fruits and firstlings. 
Thou shalt not delay, keep back or withhold. The jirst-fruits of thy 
corn and of thy wine, the fulness of the harvest and the trickling juice 
of the vintage were to come in the first-fruits to God, who gave them. 
This is more fully ordered afterwards (Lev. xxiii. 10-21 ; Deut. xviii. 4). 
The first-born of thy sons. This has been already arranged (xiii. 2). 
On the eighth day. After seven days the offspring has a hold of life 
and individuality (Gen. xvii. 12). It is then fit to be presented to God. 

The offering of the first of everything is the acknowledgment that 
all is due to God, and the token of a soul in covenant with him. This 
precept, therefore, comports with the general principle of faithfulness 
to covenant engagements. 

31. The tenth ordinance inculcates sanctity. Sanctity of the out- 
ward person is symbolic of that purity of heart that ought to characterize 
those who are in communion with God. That which was torn was 
imperfectly separated from the blood, which is the life, and was other- 
wise unclean. The dog was the emblem of the unbeliever. 



CHAP. XXIII. — LAWS OF VERACITY, OF SET TIMES, AND OF PIETY. 

6. V'" 1 ^ the needy, who feels the pinchings of want ; r. desire, want. 
£n the dependent ; r. hang, swing. 

11. tsna to remit or release from cultivation. Hence na^ia release, 
cessation from agricultural labor. 

XXIII. 1. Thou shalt not bear a false report: put not thy 
hand with the wicked to be a wrongful witness. 2. Thou 
ehalt not follow a multitude to evil. Neither shalt thou 



EXODUS XXIII. 265 

answer in a cause to lean after a multitude to wrong. 3. 
Neither shalt thou countenance a poor man in his cause. § 54. 

4. If thou meet thine enemy's ox or his ass going astray, 
thou shalt surely bring it back to him again. § 55. 

5. If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee lying under 
his burden, then thou shalt forbear to leave him, thou shalt 
surely leave with him. § 56. 

6. Thou shalt not wrest the judgment of thy needy in his 
cause. 7. Thou shalt be far from a false matter: and the 
innocent and righteous slay thou not ; for I will not justify 
the wicked. 8. And thou shalt not take a gift ; for the gift 
blindeth the open-eyed, and perverteth the word of the right- 
eous. 9. And thou shalt not oppress a stranger : and ye know 
the heart of a stranger ; for ye were strangers in the land of 
Mizraim. 

10. And six years shalt thou sow thy land and gather in the 
fruit thereof. 11. But the seventh year thou shalt let it rest 
and lie ; and the needy of thy people shall eat, and what they 
leave the beast of the field shall eat. So shalt thou do to thy 
vineyard and thy olive. 

12. Six days shalt thou do thy work, and on the seventh 
day thou shalt rest ; that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and 
the son of thy handmaid and the stranger may be refreshed. 
13. And in all that I have said to you be circumspect ; and 
mention not the name of other gods, nor let it be heard out 
of thy mouth. 

14. Three times shalt thou keep a feast unto me in the year. 
15. Thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread : seven 
days shalt thou eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee, 
in the set time of the month Abib ; for in it thou earnest out 
from Mizraim : and none shall appear before me empty : 16. 
And the feast of harvest, the first-fruits of thy labors, which 
34 



266 THE CIVIL LAW. 

thou sowest in the field : and the feast of in-gathering in the 
end of the year, when thou gatherest in thy labors out of the 
field. 17. Three times in the year all thy males shall appear 
before the Lord Jehovah. 

18. Thou shaft not offer the blood of my sacrifice with 
leavened bread ; neither shall the fat of my feast remain until 
the morning. 19. The first of the first-fruits of thy ground 
thou shalt bring into the house of the Lord thy God. Thou 
shalt not seethe a kid in its mother's milk. ^f 36. 

20. Behold I send an angel before thee : to keep thee in the 
way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. 
21. Beware of him, and hear his voice ; provoke him not : for 
he will not pardon your transgressions ; for my name is in 
him. 22. For if thou indeed hear his voice, and do all that I 
speak, then will I be an enemy unto thine enemies and an 
adversary to thine adversaries. 23. For mine angel shall go 
before thee, and bring thee to the Amorite and the Hittite, and 
the Perizzite and the Kenaanite, the Hivite and the Jebusite ; 
and I will cut them off. 24. Thou shalt not bow down to their 
gods nor serve them, nor do after their works ; but thou shalt 
utterly overthrow them and quite break down their pillars. 
25. And ye shall serve the Lord your God : and he shall bless 
thy bread and thy water ; and take away sickness from the 
midst of thee. § 57. 26. None shall miscarry or be barren 
in thy land : the number of thy days I will fulfil. 27. I will 
send my fear before thee, and confound all the people to whom 
thou comest ; and make all thine enemies turn their back unto 
thee. 28. And I will send the hornet before thee ; and it shall 
drive out the Hivite, the Kenaanite, and the Hittite from before 
thee. 29. I will not drive him out from before thee in one 
year, lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field 
multiply against thee. 30. By little and little I will drive him 



EXODUS XXIII. 1-9. 267 

out from before thee, until thou be fruitful and inherit the 
land. 31. And I will set thy border from the Red Sea even to 
the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness unto the 
river : for I will deliver into your hand the inhabitants of the 
land ; and thou shalt drive them out before thee. 32. Thou 
shalt make no covenant with them nor with their gods. 33. 
They shall not dwell in thy land, lest they make thee sin 
against me : for thou wilt serve their gods ; for it will be a 
snare to thee. ^f 38. 

V. LAWS OF VERACITY. 

1-9. This group of precepts relates chiefly to sincerity in speech 
and integrity in judgment. By a natural expansion, however, it 
includes two precepts which refer to honesty and kindliness of pur- 
pose, and are therefore quite in harmony with truthfulness of language. 

1. The first precept refers to witness-bearing, with an intent either 
to deceive or to wrong. To bear a false report is either to raise or to 
carry it, but especially the latter. A ivrongful witness is one who 
testifies falsely so as to inflict a wrong upon another. 

2. This verse contains two precepts, which are connected by the 
common reference to a multitude. The former is general, prohibiting 
the following of a multitude in anything that is evil. The latter is 
special, prohibiting a similar compliance in bearing witness so as to 
wrong the righteous in his cause. 

3. To countenance or honor the poor man in his cause is to convive 
at his criminality from a mistaken compassion for his poverty. This 
rule is extended to the rich as well as the poor in Lev. xix. 15. 

4. The fifth injunction transcends the obligation to speak the truth. 
He that meets his enemy's beast going astray is not only not to be 
silent on the subject, but not to refrain from interfering. He is to beat 
down the exasperated feeling of his heart, and bring back the straying 
animal to his enemy, as if he were a friendly brother. This would be 
a happy means of softening many asperities. 

5. The sixth precept comes in here on the principle of association. 
Then thou shalt forbear to leave him. This seems to be the simplest 






268 THE CIVIL LAW. 

mode of rendering this somewhat obscure phrase. It enables us to 
give the usual meaning of atS (leave) consistently throughout. Thou 
shalt surely leave with him. Leave the place with the owner and his 
ass relieved. These two precepts breathe the spirit of forgiveness and 
brotherly kindness. In this, as in every other respect, the Old Testa- 
ment is in harmony with the New (Matt. v. 44). 

6. In the seventh precept of this series we again return to truthful- 
ness of speech. The needy and dependent are exposed to oppression 
and injustice in a selfish world. But the man of God is not to wrest 
the judgment of the needy. Thy needy, thy brother who is needy. 
This touches the feelings of a common humanity. 

7. The eighth inculcates the avoidance of all connection with a 
false matter, particularly in lawsuits, where it may involve the judicial 
slaying of the innocent and the righteous. / will not justify, I will 
most assuredly condemn, the wicked. 

8. The ninth refers to bribery. The acceptance of a gift is for- 
bidden on the ground that it blinds the eyes and perverts the tongue. 

9. In regard to judicial truth, the stranger is entitled to the same 
equitable treatment as the home-born. On this subject the appeal is 
made to their own past experience. It is evident that this series of 
precepts finely enforces truth of purpose and honesty of heart, and 
forms a noble commentary on the ninth commandment. 

VI. LAWS REGARDING SET TIMES. 

10-19. The set times of the Lord are here treated in their bearing 
on civil affairs. This series of ordinances forms a brief but comprehen- 
sive development of the commandment that introduces the element 
of sacredness into the disposal of our time. 

10. 11. The first precept regards the Sabbatical year. u Six years " 
of sowing and reaping are to be followed by a seventh year, in which 
men are to rest from sowing, and leave off gathering in that which 
grows of itself. The spontaneous growth is to be for the needy and 
for the beast of the field. The same rule is to apply to the vineyard 
and the oliveyard. This is one of the most distinctive institutions of 
a theocratic state. No merely human legislator could venture to enact 
a law suspending the cultivation of the soil for a year, because he has 



EXODUS XXIII. 10, 11. 269 

not the power to secure the subject from the famine that might thereby 
ensue. It is otherwise, however, with the Author of all things, who 
can command an extraordinary fertility in the previous year, that will 
sustain his people for two years (Lev. xxv. 20-22). The scriptural 
use of the number seven in sacred things is to be deduced not from the 
division of the natural month into four periods of seven days, which is 
not exact in itself, nor from the seven planets, from which some nations 
have derived distinctive names for the clays of the week, but from the 
six days of creative work and the seventh day of rest with which the 
present order of things was introduced. This historical fact the Scrip- 
ture records, and makes the base of a weekly commemoration. The 
other fancies of a later age it does not recognize, and must not be 
forced to accept. In that great event God came into immediate and 
manifest contact with the heavens and the earth, reconstituted the 
system of physical things, clothed the dry land with vegetation, and 
peopled it with animated nature. On this occasion, for the first time, 
a rational inhabitant was placed upon the earth. The cycle of seven 
days during which this creative process was completed and celebrated 
imparted an association of sacredness to the number seven. 

The Sabbatical year, which is here mentioned for the first time, is 
also called the year of release. In this year, (1.) the land was to be left 
uncultivated, and its spontaneous growth made common to the servile, 
the poor, the stranger, and the wild animals. Several remarkable effects 
would follow from the honest carrying out of this arrangement. The 
spirit of avarice would be kept in constant and effectual check. The 
opposite feelings of compassion, charity, benevolence, and brotherly 
kindness would be brought into play. The original equality of all men 
in point of birth and right would rise to the surface of human observa- 
tion. The habits of prudence and economy would be cherished, as the 
produce of six years must be* so husbanded as to serve for seven years. 
A profound and practical sense of dependence upon the Lord of provi- 
dence would be awakened in the breast (Lev. xxv. 2-8 ; Joseph. Antiq. 
iii. 12, 3). This institution thus harmonizes with the Sabbath in break- 
ing down the narrow selfishness of the fallen nature, and fostering the 
disinterested kindliness that springs up in the new heart. (2.) A debt 
owed by a poor man who had nothing to pay was to be remitted, or at 
all events not exacted. This is a natural consequence of the intermis- 



270 THE CIVIL LAW. 

sion of cultivation during the seventh year. He that receives no fruits 
from the soil is not in a condition to pay debt. This carries the liber- 
ality of the affluent brother to its ultimate extent. The poor man is 
not to be allowed to perish, though he have nothing to pay (Deut. xv. 
1, 2). (3.) On this year, during the feast of tabernacles, the law was 
to be read aloud in the audience of all the people. On this Sabbath- 
year it was appropriate that the great principles of morality should be 
solemnly presented to the minds of the people. The septennial Sabbath 
thus bore a complete analogy to the hebdomadal, which was to be cele- 
brated, by a holy leisure for the offices of public worship. 

12, 13. The seventh-day Sabbath is here introduced in its relation 
to civic rights. The cattle, the servile, and the stranger are to be 
partakers in this rest. 13. And in all that I have said to you be 
circumspect. This admonition appears to refer to the precept concern- 
ing the Sabbath. And mention not the name of other gods. The import 
of this injunction is to be ascertained from the nature of the enactment 
to which it refers. The fourth commandment belongs to that table 
which contains our duty to God. It prescribes, moreover, the day on 
which religious exercises are to be statedly observed. It is the only 
precept in the Decalogue which involves the ordinances of a perpetual 
worship, and keeps alive in the breasts of the people the remembrance 
of God, of his will, and of his grace. Hence it is natural that the 
people should be guarded against devoting themselves or any of their 
thoughts on this day to any false god. This is, therefore, not a separate 
precept, but an incidental warning in regard to the special solemnities 
of the Sabbath. 

Some have regarded this verse as a concluding formula of admonition, 
referring to the preceding part of the chapter and marking it off from 
that which follows. But it is remarkable that the Masoretes have no 
division whatever at this point of the text. This plainly indicates that 
they regarded this verse merely as the completion of the precept concern- 
ing the Sabbath, and not an independent rule or closing exhortation. 

14-17. The next five precepts refer to the annual festivals. The 
first determines that there shall be three such festivals in the year. 
15. The second enjoins the feast of unleavened bread. As I commanded 
thee. The passover or feast of unleavened bread has been already in- 
stituted (xii). And none shall appear before me empty. This applies 



EXODUS XXm. 14-18. 271 

to all the three festivals, and refers to the obligation of all, without 
exception, to provide the things requisite for the celebration of each. 
Freewill offerings might be presented on such occasions ; but they are 
not implied in these words. 1 6. The third relates to the second festival 
(Lev. xxiii. 15-22; Num. xxviii. 26-31; Deut. xvi. 9-12). It was 
called the feast of harvest, because the grain harvest was drawing to a 
close at the time of its celebration ; the day of first-fruits, because then 
the two loaves made of the new corn were presented (Num. xxviii. 2 8 ; 
and the feast of weeks, or Pentecost, because it was kept on the morrow 
after the seventh Sabbath from the Sabbath of the feast of unleavened 
bread (Deut. xvi. 10). The fourth refers to the third festival (Lev. 
xxiii. 33-43 ; Num. xxix. 12-39 ; Deut. xvi. 13-15). This is caUed 
the feast of in-gathering, because the fruit harvest was then completed 
and the whole produce of the ground gathered in ; and the feast of 
tabernacles, because the tabernacling of the people in the wilderness 
was then commemorated. These three festivals correspond in the main 
with the three elements of salvation : the passover with the atonement ^ 
the pentecost with the new birth ; and the feast of in-gathering with 
pardon and its accompanying plenitude of blessings. The pentecost is 
regarded as the completion of the passover ; and so sanctification in- 
variably accompanies justification. Mercy flows forth in pardon, as the 
end of which the atonement and the new birth are the means. So the 
feast of in-gathering in the beginning of the ancient year is mediate 
by the feasts of the passover and of weeks in the beginning of the 
new year. 17. The fifth precept affirms the obligation of all males to 
appear at each of the three festivals. 

18. The two directions in this verse are united into the eighth regu- 
lation by their common reference to the passover. The blood of my 
sacrifice, of the passover lamb, which was peculiarly God's sacrifice 
and pre-eminently the type of the Messiah (Jno. i. 29). Leavened 
bread. Leaven is that which dissolves and corrupts. It is therefore 
a fit emblem of sin, which is to be excluded from the service or the 
offerings of God (xii. 10). TJie fat of my feast. The paschal lamb 
was to be wholly consumed in the evening, and no part left till the 
morning. This is the rule, whether we understand " the fat of my 
feast " to be the best of sacrifices, that is, the passover, or, what is 
more likely, the fat of the paschal lamb, which was to be offered to 
the Lord, while the flesh was eaten by the worshippers. 



272 THE CIVIL LAW. 

19. This verse contains two regulations. That concerning the first- 
fruits refers to the feast of weeks, when the two wave-loaves, which 
may be called the first of the first-fruits of the ground, were offered 
unto the Lord (Lev. xxiii. 17). And next the Eastern custom of 
occasionally seething in milk here comes into view, and has survived 
to this day. The prohibition to seethe a kid in the mother's milk has 
reference to all the festivals or set times of the Lord. It appears from 
the regulations concerning these (Num. xxviii. 29) that one kid of 
the goats for a sin-offering was to be offered in the beginnings of the 
months, on each of the seven days of the feast of unleavened bread, on 
the day of the first-fruits, on the first and the tenth days of the seventh 
month, and on each of the eight days of the feast of tabernacles. The 
flesh of this kid was to be dressed and eaten by the priests in the holy 
place (Lev. vi. 26). Hence the general precept comes in here that a 
kid is not to be seethed in its mother's milk. The dam is the natural 
mother and nurse of the kid, and the milk is the natural aliment by 
which life is sustained. To employ the milk of the very dam to aid 
in cooking the kid for food is a rude violation of the order of nature, 
.and to prohibit such a custom is to cultivate those feelings of consider- 
ation and tenderness in the daily routine of our thoughts which sin 
tends to quench, and moral training is intended to rekindle. This 
minute regulation on behalf of right feeling involves the great principle 
that the course of human feeling and conduct ought, in its finest as well 
as its broaflest lines, to be brought into harmony with the law of uni- 
versal benevolence. 

VII. THE LAWS OF PIETY. 

20-33. It is manifest that the law of moral thought cannot be spread 
out into the same distinguishable branches as that of external action. 
Accordingly, this passage, which is marked off in the Masorah, both 
at the beginning and the end, as a major section, is not very obviously 
divisible into ten rules or judgments. It bears also a temporary 
aspect, inasmuch as it treats of matters that come to a termination 
when the people are settled in the land of promise. And it consists 
very largely of promises, which scarcely enter into the other sections 
of this code of civil jurisprudence. Nevertheless, it evidently forms 



exodus xxni. 20-22. 273 

an integral part of the common law of Israel. It is appropriate and 
essential that promises should have a direct or indirect part in " the 
book of the covenant." Accordingly, in this conclusion of the civil 
code, promises are intermingled with injunctions ; and though some 
of them are terminable, yet they prefigure blessings of a higher order, 
and of perpetual duration. And a decade of commands seems to be 
here intermingled with a decade of promises. 

20-23. This portion contains three commands and three promises. 

20. Behold. This word is frequently used to introduce an important 
intimation concerning the future. I send an angel before thee. The 
angel here promised is very closely allied with the speaker and sender. 
He has power to " pardon transgressions." The reason assigned for 
this high prerogative is, " for my name is in his inmost "; my nature 
is in his essence. This intimates a substantial identity. We conclude 
that the angel here is God manifest in angelic offices to his people. 
They are to " beware of him, to hear his voice, and provoke him not." 
To " hear his voice " and to " do all that I speak " appear to be of the 
same import. All these phrases corroborate the conclusion that the 
angel is God. He is sent before the people for the important purposes 
of keeping them in the way, and bringing them to the place prepared 
for them. This is the great promise of the passage. It is in continu- 
ance, and at the same time in advance, of former assurances (iii. 8, xiii. 

21, 22). It intimates, at the same time, a certain distance in point of 
moral condition between God and his people, which is bridged over by 
means of his angel (Gen. xvi. 7). 

21. This verse contains three injunctions regarding this angel. 
Beware of him. Give reverent heed to him, as the Supreme God is 
in him. Hear his voice. Understand and obey him, as the Lord 
revealing himself by his word. Provoke him not. Let not your will 
come into conflict with his will, as he is the Great Spirit, who is to be 
worshipped in spirit and in truth. 

22. The central command is recapitulated and elucidated in the 
condition " If thou indeed hear his voice, and do all that I speak." 
This verse presents a second promise, consequent upon the former. 
Then will I be an enemy unto thine enemies. This phrase refers to the 
inward feeling, as the following one does to the outward display of 
hostility. It is here intimated, in general terms, that the Lord and 

35 



274 THE CIVIL LAW. 

his people, while they were one in feeling and interest, have common 
enemies in this world. 

23. A fuller specification of the end of their journey is here followed 
by a third promise. The Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Kenaanite, 
the Hivite and the Jebusite, are among the twelve tribes to which 
Kenaan gave rise, eleven being named after his descendants and one 
after himself (see Gen. xv. 19). The Perizzite makes his appearance 
along with the Kenaanite in the history of Abraham (Gen. xiii. 7). 
These six tribes were the prominent inhabitants of Kenaan in the time 
of Moses (iii. 8). The Amorite is now placed first, as the most promi- 
nent in transgression, and the first with whom the Israelites are to 
come into contact. And I will cut them off. This promise is in 
accordance with a purpose long since announced. Four hundred years 
before, the Lord had informed Abraham that " the iniquity of the 
Amorites was not yet mil" (Gen. xv. 16). This is no arbitrary 
procedure on the part of the Most High Possessor of heaven and earth. 
It is an act of retributive justice. What was the original offence of 
the Kenaanite, whether it was an early apostasy from the living God, 
the ruthless invasion of a preoccupied country, and the barbarous op- 
pression of the Shemite inhabitants, among whom the knowledge of the 
true God still ■ lingered, we are not informed. But we perceive that 
the original crime had been aggravated by a course of transgression 
which made the nation ripe for a penal extirpation. 

24—26. These three verses contain four injunctions and four promises. 
24. TIiou shalt not bow down to their gods nor serve them. These 
nations are manifestly idolaters, apostates from the living and true God, 
and therefore ranking among those that hate him (xx. 5). Their idols 
will come under the notice of Israel when they enter the land. The 
idea of local or national gods had become familiar to them in Egypt. 
And a superstitious dread of entering into possession without propitia- 
ting the supposed gods of the land might still lurk in their breasts. 
Hence the reasonableness of this precept, reiterating the prohibition of 
the second commandment. Nor do after their works. These are the 
works of the people of the land ; and chief among these, the making 
and worshipping of idols, and the licentious vices which accompany the 
service of their national deities. It is only necessary to reflect, that 
the principal objects of their worship were a male deity, Baal, the sun- 



EXODUS XXTTT. 24-30. 275 

god, coinciding in attributes with the Apollo and Jupiter of the Greeks 
and Romans ; and a female, Beltis, Ashtoreth, the moon-goddess, 
resembling in her character and worship the Aphrodite or Venus of 
these nations, in order to understand the revolting nature of the bloody 
and lascivious rites and customs by which the very name of religion 
was profaned. Human sacrifice and prostitution in the national worship 
were sufficient to bury all moral feeling in the grave of carnality. 
Tliou shali utterly overthrow them. The people and their gods seem to 
be here associated as one great system of evil, to be overwhelmed with 
destruction. •■ Their pillars " are the monumental stones, connected in 
a rude, uncivilized age with the worship of these fallen gods. 

25. And ye shall serve the Lord your God. This is the fourth of 
this group of injunctions, forming the counterpart of the three that 
went before. It is followed by the four promises of this passage. He 
shall bless thy bread and thy water. Bread and water, the main elements 
of subsistence, stand for all the rest. The divine blessing gives these 
all their value to a rational creature. And take away sickness from 
the midst of thee. Xext to the means of life, is health to enjoy them. 
Without the latter the former are of no avail. 26. None shall mis- 
carry or be barren in thy land. This secures the perpetuation of the 
race. The number of thy days will I fulfil. Length of life in peace 
and prosperity is here ensured to the faithful nation. The sum of all 
earthly prosperity here described, is at the same time an earnest and 
type of still greater blessings in an advanced stage of existence. God 
begins with the present, and will never fail his confiding people through 
an endless future. 

27-33. This passage adds the remaining triad of promises and com- 
mands. I will send my fear before thee. The fame of the mighty deeds 
by which Egypt was humbled in the dust, and Israel delivered and 
kept in safety through the wilderness, would awaken a sense of alarm 
in the nations who were living in rebellion against the living God. 
Discouraged and troubled in mind, they would make only a feeble 
effort at resistance, and ultimately turn their backs to the victorious 
invader. 

28-30. And I will send the hornet before thee. The hornet is here 
used collectively for a plague of hornets infesting the land. This plague 
is again mentioned (Deut. vii. 20), and a passing allusion made to its 



276 THE civil LAW. 

fulfilment (Josh. xxiv. 12). Some suppose this to be a figurative descrip- 
tion of certain otherwise unknown calamities that befel these nations 
in the war of extermination. But Bochart (Hieroz. iii. p. 409) has 
shown that frogs, mice, and other small animals have been the means 
of annoying and banishing whole tribes from their settlements. And 
the rapid conquest of two such powerful kingdoms as those of Sihon 
and Og, and the immediate occupation of their cities (Num. xxi. 21-35) 
by the invaders, are explained by the fact that they had been enfeebled 
and diminished by a plague such as that here described. There is no 
reason whatever, therefore, to retire from the ground of plain matter 
of fact, historically recorded, into the region of a dark, figurative un- 
known, which cannot be filled up even by the imagination. The Hivite, 
the Kenaanite, and the Hittite are to be the chief sufferers from the 
plague of hornets. But the Amorites also were exhausted by their 
inroads (Josh. xxiv. 12). 29, 30. A gradual removal of the former 
inhabitants is here intimated, on the ground that the land without 
occupants would be infested by wild beasts, as was the case at the time 
of the exile of the ten tribes (2 Kings xvii. 25). If the former nations 
had been instantly exterminated, a people consisting of one million 
six hundred thousand could not have at once occupied the whole land. 
Besides, the territory here promised was much more extensive than 
the land of Kenaan. 

31. The boundaries of the promised land are here indicated. The 
" Wilderness " is that of Etham and Shur. The " river " is the Phrat. 
The extent of territory within these bounds cannot be less than four 
hundred and ninety miles by one hundred, and therefore four or five 
times the area of Palestine proper. It is to be remembered that these 
promises are here made conditional on obedience ; and therefore their 
fulfilment was in some degree modified by the subsequent conduct of 
the people. And thou shalt drive them out before thee. This is the 
injunction laid on Israel as the executioner of the judgment of God. 

32. The second injunction is to make no covenant with the people 
or their idols. 

33. The idolatrous people are to be banished from the land, that 
they may not be a temptation to the children of Israel. The order of 
thought is, their dwelling in the land will be a snare to thee, and 
thou wilt serve their gods, when thou hast tolerated themselves and 
their idolatrous ways. 



EXODUS XXIV. 277 

This completes the book of the covenant, in four chapters, contain- 
ing the ten commandments for the moral government of man, and 
seventy judgments for the regulation of civil life. 



CHAP. XXIV. — THE LAW ACCEPTED. 

XXIY. 1. And to Moses he said, Come up unto the Lord, 
thou and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders 
of Israel ; and worship ye afar off. 2. And Moses alone shall 
come near the Lord, but they shall not come near ; and the 
people shall not come up with him. 3. And Moses went and 
told the people all the words of the Lord and all the judg- 
ments : and all the people answered with one voice, and said, 
All the words which the Lord hath spoken will we do. 4. 
And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord, and rose up early 
in the morning, and built an altar under the mount, and twelve 
pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel. 5. And he sent young- 
men of the sons of Israel, and they offered burnt-offerings, and 
sacrificed peace-offerings of oxen to the Lord. 6. And Moses 
took half of the blood and put in basins ; and half of the blood 
he sprinkled on the altar. 7. And he took the book of the 
covenant, and read in the ears of the people ; and they said, 
All that the Lord hath spoken will we do and obey. 8. And 
Moses took the blood and sprinkled on all the people ; and 
said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord hath 
made with you according to all these words 

9. Then went up Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and 
seventy of the elders of Israel. 10. And they saw the God of 
Israel : and under his feet as a paved work of sapphire and as 
the substance of heaven for purity. 11. And upon the nobles 
of the sons of Israel he laid not his hand : and they beheld 
God, and ate and drank. § 38. 



278 THE CLOSING OF THE COVENANT. 

12. And the Lord said unto Moses, Come up to me into the 
mount, and be .there : and I will give thee tables of stone and 
the law and the commandment which I have written to teach 
them. 13. And Moses rose up and Joshua his minister ; and 
Moses went up to the mount of God. 14. And to the elders 
he said, Sit ye here for us, until we come back unto you : and 
behold Aaron and Hur are with you ; whosoever hath any 
matter, let him draw near unto them. 15. And Moses went 
up into the mount, and the cloud covered the mount. 16. 
And the glory of the Lord abode upon Mount Sinai, and the 
cloud covered it six days ; and he called unto Moses the 
seventh day out of the midst of the cloud. 17. And the sight 
of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of 
the mount in the eyes of the sons of Israel. 18. And Moses 
went into the midst of the cloud, and went up into the mount ; 
and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights. 

i9. iririr 39. 

The formal ratification of the covenant between God and his people 
is the appropriate close of the legislative section which forms the 
kernel of the Book of Exodus. The admission of Moses and the 
other representatives of the people into the presence of God is the 
natural result of the sealing of the covenant. These are, accordingly, 
the two topics of this concluding chapter. 

1-8. The closing of the covenant. And to Moses he said. The 
words " and to Moses, " being placed first in the original, are emphatic. 
This places the following words addressed to Moses in contrast with 
the communication begun in xx. 22, and addressed to the people. 
Come up. This indicates an approach to the mountain in general. 
In the present case it includes an ascent of some part of the moun- 
tain side. Moses and Aaron ascend as the prophet and priest of God ; 
Nadab and Abihu, as the elder sons of Aaron, henceforth to be 
associated with him in the priesthood ; the seventy elders as the rep- 
resentative heads of the people. The number seventy, which we 



EXODUS XXIV. 1-6. 279 

might expect to be a round number for seventy -two, or six out of 
every tribe, has most probably a historical reference to the number of 
souls that constituted the whole family of Jacob when he came down 
into Egypt (see on Gen. xlvi. 27). And. worship ye afar off. This 
shows that they were not to ascend to the summit of the mountain. 
Moses shall come near ; and only the representatives prescribed shall 
come at all. 

3. And Moses went. The call to come up to the mount is subse- 
quent both in its utterance and in the time of its execution to the 
directions given in xx. 22, 26, which imply all that Moses now 
proceeds to do. And told the people. The acceptance of the covenant 
is to be an intelligent service. All the words of the Lord. This may 
refer to all the words contained in the preceding four chapters, or in 
the twentieth chapter only. The ten " words, " pre-eminently so called, 
Moses may have now rehearsed to the people. And all the judgments, 
the seven decades of regulations contained in the previous three chap- 
ters. Will we do. The unanimous assent of the people is the virtual 
acceptance of the covenant. 

4-8. This passage contains the solemn ratification of the covenant. 
And Moses wrote. All the words of the Lord now written constitute 
the Book of the Covenant afterwards mentioned. Built an altar. 
This is the first altar erected in compliance with the precept in xx. 24. 
The altar indicates the presence of God in covenant with his people. 
Tlie twelve pillars, placed probably in a circle round the altar, indicate 
the presence of the twelve tribes in this great solemnization of the 
covenant. They do not seem to have had a monumental character, 
as we hear no more of them. 

5. And he sent young men of the sons of Israel. These youths are 
not to be further defined as first-born or Levites, but as fit persons 
selected by Moses himself, who is the principal agent in mediating 
the covenant, out of a people who are all a " kingdom of priests and 
a holy nation" (xix. 6). They are merely the ministers of Moses, 
and not the representatives of the people, who are the seventy elders, 
and occupy a different position in this great transaction. Burnt- 
offerings and peace-offerings, types of atonement and thanksgiving 
(xx. 24). 

6. And Moses took half of the blood. The blood is that which 



280 THE CLOSING OF THE COVENANT. 

makes atonement, and thereby lays the foundation for a covenant of 
peace. Hence it ratifies the covenant. For this purpose it is divided 
into two equal parts. The one is reserved in basins ; the other is 
sprinkled on the altar. There it makes a propitiation, and in the 
present instance signifies concurrence in the covenant. 

7. The booh of the covenant, which he had just written, contains the 
" words " and "judgments " of the previous four chapters. And read. 
Before, he told or reported ; now, he solemnly recites. The former 
assent of the people authorized the step of solemnizing the covenant. 
This unanimous consent, after a second deliberate hearing, is the 
formal acceptance of the covenant. 

8. The blood. This is the part reserved in basins. The blood has 
here two functions to fulfil — first to make reconciliation, and then by 
its application to determine the parties reconciled. *Its offering on the 
altar conditionates the covenant ; its application to the people makes 
them parties to the covenant. It is the one blood that accomplishes 
the pacification. Hence Moses sprinkles the reserved portion of the 
atoning blood on the people, saying, " Behold the blood of the cove- 
nant, which the Lord hath made." According to all these words. 
The book of the covenant which Moses had read contained the terms 
of the covenant to which they had now consented. 

9—11. The ascent to a certain point in the mountain side, to which 
reference was made in the first verse, is now accomplished. To what 
point they ascended would be a very unprofitable inquiry. It is 
incomparably more important to mark the fact that now, when the 
covenant has received its solemn and final sanction, the people have 
access to God. Hence by their representations they enter into the 
presence of God. 10. And they saw the God of Israel. We take 
these words in their simple sense. Whatever were the sensible circum- 
stances of the divine presence, they were permitted to see with the 
eye of sense. Whatever aspect of God himself with face averted from 
them was presented to them, they discerned, we may venture to 
presume, with the eye of the spirit. Hence they do not say a word 
of the " similitude of any figure " of the Divine Being, because they 
had not seen any such (xxxiii. 20-23 ; Deut. iv. 15-19). The God of 
Israel. As he was the God of Abraham when alone, the God of 
Jacob when the head of a family, so now he is the God of Israel as a 



EXODUS XXIV. 9-18. 281 

people in covenant with him. A paved work of sapphire. But the 
spectators of that heavenly vision can only describe the outwardly 
visible glory that came before them. This phrase is otherwise ren- 
dered " a work of the whiteness or transparency of sapphire. " It is 
not of great importance which rendering is adopted, as what they saw 
is only compared with this, and therefore only distantly illustrated by 
it. But we prefer the former rendering, with Aben Ezra, because the 
sapphire is of various colors, blue, red, yellow, and white, and the 
word " work " («iiB?;p) is generally connected, not with color, but 
with the material, the art, or the artificer. A paved work of sapphire 
is descriptive of a scene of matchless splendor, having the qualities of 
adamantine solidity, transparence, and brilliancy. The substance of 
heaven for purity. The substance of heaven is a phrase for the very 
heaven itself. Nothing less than the spotless purity and lustre of the 
skies above is fit to be compared with the inexpressible beauty and 
grandeur of that which was beneath the feet of the God of Israel. 
With this short sentence ends the description. A fancy sketch would 
have been more copious. 11. Upon the nobles of the sons of Israel 
he laid not his hand. He did not consume them with the fire of his 
holiness, because they had now with the whole consent of their minds 
entered into a covenant of peace with him through the blood of atone- 
ment. They were therefore favored with the vision of the Almighty. 
They beheld God. This is the verb generally employed to denote the 
vision of the prophet. It denotes attentive and absorbed contempla- 
tion. And ate and. drank. Notwithstanding the contemplation of the 
infinitely holy One, they continued to discharge the functions of an 
eaTthly life. This is supposed to refer to their partaking of the peace- 
offerings on their descent ; but it seems to be merely a proverbial 
phrase to denote the continuance of life. 

12-18. This passage describes the ascent of Moses to the actual 
summit of the mount. Gome up. This may be understood to imply 
that Moses and the others had descended to partake of the sacrificial 
feast. At all events, they were still within reach of any of the people 
who might have business with them. But Moses was now to ascend 
farther. And be there. Abide there for a considerable time. Tables 
of stone, slabs or tablets on which the law was written. Tlie law, or 
doctrine concerning God and his rights. The commandment, the 
36 



282 MOSES ASCENDS THE MOUNT. 

authoritative rule for the conduct of man. The reasonable nature of 
the ten words inscribed on the tables of stone appears from the fact 
that they first reveal a doctrine, and then impose an obligation founded 
on that doctrine. Which I have written. These words were not only 
spoken by the voice, but written by the finger, of God, who herein 
displays a wondrous care of his chosen people. To teach them. In 
the original we have here the same root that is contained in the word 
rendered " law. " God's law is a doctrine, a philosophy, a theology. 

13. And Moses rose up, from a state of rest and contemplation. 
And Joshua his minister. Joshua has already come before us as 
captain of the host against Amalek (xvii. 9). He is described here as 
the minister, attendant, or adjutant of Moses. His presence has not 
been noticed among those who went up to the mountain. He must 
have been in attendance upon Moses. Some suppose he was one of 
the seventy elders, but his youth militates against this view. 14. 
Before leaving them, Moses commanded the elders to await his return 
where they were, and pointed out Aaron and Hur as his represent- 
atives to the people. 15. He now at length ascends into the mount, 
accompanied by Joshua alone to the very verge of the cloud which 
covered the mount. 16. Six days he waits in the precincts of the 
cloud, and on the seventh day he is summoned into the presence of 
the Majesty on high. If the giving of the law fell on the sixth of the 
third month, and a day be allowed for the ratification of the covenant, 
the seventh day after, on which Moses at length ascends into the 
mount, will be the fourteenth of the third month, 17. The sons of 
Israel contemplated with solemn awe the glory of the Lord displayed 
on Mount Sinai, which appeared to them as a vast flame of devouring 
fire. 18. Into this flaming mount Moses, at the call of God, ascended, 
and abode in that wondrous scene forty days and forty nights. The 
stately march of the narrative throughout this passage corresponds 
with the unparalleled grandeur of the occasion. 



SECTION V.~ THE TABERNACLE. 

XIII. PLAN OF THE TABERNACLE. — Ex. xxv.-xxxi. 
CHAP. XXV.— THE ARK, TABLE. AND CANDLESTICK. 

2. hsron gift, d-n-apx^, that which is lifted up or heaved, and hence 
denoting specially the heave-offering, which got its name from the 
manner in which it was heaved up when presented. 

4. nbafc volklvOos, violet or blue, a dark blue obtained from the murex, 
a shell-fish of the coasts of Phoenicia, Laconia, and North Africa. The 
dye is originally white, then green, and lastly a blue purple. 

"jEaiit rropcfivpa, red, purple, obtained from the purpura, a fish of 
Syrian and Peloponnesian shores. 

n?Vn worm. "Od crimson, from a root signifying to shine. The 
two words denote the Kermes worm, or the dye obtained from it. 
This worm or insect is found on the ilex or holm oak in Palestine 
and the south of Europe. 

ttjtfj /3uWos, flax, the shenti of old Egyptian, which was fine flax, 
not cotton. 

5. irnn is variously conjectured to be the badger, the seal, the 
dolpin, and the tacasse, a species of antelope found in Africa; r. 
ndn be silent, it is said from its hibernation. 

G. Dtoa or cira sweet smell, spice. Dlra the balsam, by the inser 
tion of I in the Arabic form of the word. This plant is common in 
Palestine, w^q spices, perfumes, from the sweet smell. 

16. ni1§ testimony, lis to be fast, firm, sure. 1*WJ assure, attest. 
"is witness. 13£ fix, appoint. il^S appointed meeting, regularly 
constituted assembly. 

17. rffsa tAcumJptov, eiride/m, propitiatorium, mercy-seat ; r. in Kal, 
lay on (pitch) ; in Piel, expiate. 

29. <"H2p rpv^Xwv, a large dish or plate for bread. Those presented 
by the princes of Israel weighed each one hundred and thirty shekels, 
or about five pounds troy weight (Num. vii. 13). 



284 THE ARK > TABLE, AND CANDLESTICK. 

f]3 palm, sole. In pi. OvtcrKai, howls or smaller plates for holding 
frankincense, which were placed upon the bread. Each of those 
presented by the princes weighed ten shekels, or about four and a 
half ounces. 

niltop cr7rov8cta, bowls or flagons holding wine for libations. 

rWSE KvaOoL, cups used in drink-offerings. 

XXV. 1. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying : 2. Speak 
unto the sons of Israel, that they take for me an offering : of 
every man whose heart is willing ye shall take my offering. 
3. And this is the offering which ye shall take of them ; gold 
and silver and brass. 4. And blue and purple and crimson ; 
and fine linen and goats' hair ; 5. And rams' skins dyed red, 
and badgers' skins ; and shittah wood ; 6. Oil for the light ; 
spices for the anointing oil and for the incense of perfumes ; 
7. Onyx stones, and stones for the ephod and for the breast- 
plate. 8. And they shall make me a sanctuary, that I may 
dwell among them. 9. According to all that I show thee, 
after the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its 
instruments, even so shall ye make it. § 59. 

10. And they shall make an ark of shittah wood : two cubits 
and a half shall be its length, a cubit and a half its breadth, 
and a cubit and a half its height. 11. And thou shalt overlay 
it with pure gold, within and without shalt thou overlay it : 
and thou shalt make upon it a crown of gold round about. 
12. And thou shalt cast for it four rings of gold, and put them 
on its four feet : and two rings shall be on the one side of it, 
and two rings on the other side of it. 13. And thou shalt 
make staves of shittah wood, and overlay them with gold. 14. 
And thou shalt put the staves in the rings on the sides of the 
ark, to bear the ark with them. 15. The staves shall be in the 
rings of the ark ; they shall not depart from it. 16. And thou 
shalt put into the ark the testimony which I shall give thee. 



EXODUS XXV. 285 

17. And thou shalt make a mercy-seat of pure gold : two 
cubits and a half shall be its length and a cubit and a half its 
breadth. 18. And thou shalt make two cherubim of gold; 
of beaten work shalt thou make them, on the two ends of the 
mercy-seat. 19. And make one cherub on the one end and 
the other cherub on the other end ; out of the mercy-seat shall 
ye make the cherubim on its two ends. 20. And the cherubim 
shall spread out two wings above, covering the mercy-seat with 
their wings, and their faces each to the other ; toward the 
mercy-seat shall the faces of the cherubim be. 21. And thou 
shalt put the mercy-seat on the ark from above : and in the 
ark shalt thou put the testimony that I shall give thee. 22. 
And I will meet with thee there, and speak with thee from 
above the mercy-seat, from between the two cherubim which 
are upon the ark of the testimony, of all that I command thee 
concerning the sons of Israel. If 40. 

23. And thou shalt make a table of shittah wood: two 
cubits shall be its length, and a cubit its breadth, and a cubit 
and a half its height. 24. And thou shalt overlay it with pure 
gold, and make for it a crown of gold round about.' 25. And 
thou shalt make for it a border of a handbreadth round about, 
and make a crown of gold for the border thereof round about. 
26. And thou shalt make for it four rings of gold ; and put the 
rings on the four corners of its four feet. 27. Over against 
the border shall be the rings for places for the staves to bear 
the table. 28. And thou shalt make the staves of shittah 
wood, and overlay them with gold ; and the table shall be 
borne with them. 29. And thou shalt make its dishes, and its 
bowls, and its flagons, and its cups, to pour out withal : of 
pure gold shalt thou make them. 30. And thou shalt set on 
the table shew-bread before me alway. ^[ 41. 

31. And thou shalt make a candlestick of pure gold : of 



286 THE ARK, TABLE, AND CANDLESTICK. 

beaten work shall the candlestick be made ; its block and its 
shaft, its cups, its knops, and its flowers, shall be of the same. 
32. And six branches shall come out of the sides of it ; three 
branches of the candlestick out of the one side, and three 
branches of the candlestick out of the other side. 33. Three 
almond-shaped cups in one branch, a knop and a flower ; and 
three almond-shaped cups in another branch, a knop and a 
flower : so for the six branches coming out of the candlestick. 
34. And in the candlestick shall be four almond-shaped cups, 
its knops and its flowers. 35. And there shall be a knop 
under two branches of the same, and a knop under two 
branches of the same, and a knop under two branches of the 
same ; for the six branches coming out of the candlestick. 
36. Their knops and their branches shall be of the same ; all 
of it shall be one beaten piece of pure gold. 37. And thou 
shalt make the seven lamps thereof ; and he shall set up the 
lamps thereof and give light over against it. 38. And its snuffers 
and its snuff-dishes shall be of pure gold. 39. Of a talent of 
pure gold shall he make it with all these vessels. 40. And 
see that thou make them after their pattern, which thou wast 
shown in the mount. § 60. 

The substance of the covenant made in the previous section may be 
conveyed in the formula: "I will take you to me for a people, and I 
will be to you a God" (vi. 7, xix. 5, 6, xx. 2). The natural conse- 
quence of this is that he will take up his abode among them, and enter 
into all the intercourse of sacred fellowship with them. For this 
purpose an abode is to be prepared for God, and provided with the 
needful furniture. But inasmuch as the people belong to a fallen 
race, upon whom the curse of disobedience has descended, a type at 
least of propitiation and intercession must form a part of the ceremo- 
nial intercourse between God and his people, until the reality of these 
priestly functions has at length arrived. 

The tabernacle is the home of God among his ransomed people. It 



EXODUS XXV. 287 

is in general an adumbration of the great primeval dwelling-place of 
God, where he holds converse with the manifold ranks and estates of 
his rational and righteous creatures. We are wont to imagine this to 
be some central place whither the myriads of the intelligent universe 
may convene for the business of heaven, and for the recreations of 
hospitable and friendly intercourse in the heaven of heavens. But we 
are not to bind the Omnipresent to this habitual conception of our 
minds. For aught we can know there may be as many centres of 
home for the Supreme as there are spheres of spiritual beings suscept- 
ible of the unutterable joys of the divine home and presence and 
converse. Hence there may be a broad basis of truth in all the 
varying interpretations which the prolific imaginations of thoughtful 
men have put upon this profoundly interesting portion of scripture. 
But with a due regard to the occasion on which the tabernacle was 
instituted, the stage at which human knowledge had then arrived, and 
the life and freshness of the truth which it shadows forth, it is best to 
adhere to the simple idea of a home, where God dwells on terms of 
affectionate and familiar intimacy with his redeemed and reconciled 
people. This is the generic conception of the tabernacle. Yet we 
should come far short of a correct apprehension of its nature, if we 
did not bring out into conspicuous prominence its specific difference. 
It is to be remembered as a fact of essential moment that the people 
among whom God is here to dwell are undergoing a process of sancti- 
fication, which is begun in each individual by accepting a pardon freely 
bestowed and a propitiation typically made on his behalf. Hence the 
paternal house or heaven, which the tabernacle represents, is not 
merely the general home of the intelligent universe, but the heaven 
of the redeemed, where the Lamb will be a conspicuous figure, and the 
psalm of praise will be the new song of redemption, transcending in 
its revelation of the divine nature the older song of creation. Hence 
the whole service of the sanctuary is typical of the higher blessings of 
salvation, of the true High Priest, of the really atoning sacrifice, of the 
heaven of redemption, and of that spiritual fellowship which the saints 
will have with the Lord in glory. It is the flower of the whole econ- 
omy of grace, giving fair promise of the fruit in due season. Hence 
we can understand the place and space given to the tabernacle in this 
book of the exodus. The tabernacle expands and completes what was 



288 THE MATERIALS FOR THE TABERNACLE. 

represented in brief by the lamb of the passover. It sets forth the 
blessings which flow from reconciliation. It is the glorious end to 
which all the preliminary steps of the deliverance and the covenant 
lead. It occupies a proportionate amplitude of space in the records of 
God's dealings with his people. Seven chapters are devoted to the 
specifications of the tabernacle, and six to its construction and erection, 
between which are three chapters giving an account of a lamentable 
act of unbelief and apostasy on the part of the chosen people. 

Of the seven chapters of specification three are assigned to the 
tabernacle itself, three to the priest of the tabernacle, and one to the 
arrangements for having the whole carried into effect in an efficient 
and irreproachable manner. 

The present chapter contains directions concerning the contribution 
of the materials, and the construction of the ark, the table, and the 
candlestick. 

1-9. The order for the contribution of materials to construct the 
tabernacle. An offering is here a gift called by the name of the heave- 
offering (xxix. 27). Of every man whose heart is willing. A forced 
service is only a bodily service. A free-will offering is alone acceptable 
to the Searcher of hearts. 3-7. The materials of the offering and of the 
tabernacle are all definitely prescribed. There are three metals ; three 
colors of animal origin ; two textile fabrics, the one vegetable, the other 
animal ; two sorts of skins ; one species of wood ; oil from the olive ; 
spices ; onyx stones, and other precious stones, twelve in number, for 
setting. Reckoning spices as one class, and precious stones as another, 
we have here twice seven kinds of material, of which four are from the 
mineral kingdom, four from the vegetable, and six from the animal. 
Blue is a purple color from the murex ; purple is the red purple ob- 
tained from the purpura ; and crimson the red extracted from the 
coccus or kermes, supposed by some of the ancients to be a berry, but 
in reality an insect adhering to the holm oak. Fine linen, a product 
for which Egypt was celebrated. Rams' 1 skins dyed red. This cannot 
be naturally rendered skins of red rams. Badgers' shins. The badger 
is a native of Europe. It is probable that the animal here intended is 
different ; but whether it be the seal, dolphin, tacasse, or some other 
animal is a matter of conjecture. The familiar word badger may be 
retained with the understanding that it is used for an unknown animal 



EXODUS XXV. 1-9. 289 

easily obtained in the peninsula of Sinai. Shittah wood. This is the 
Egyptian and Arabic shant, or acacia, which must have been large and 
abundant in the time of Moses. It is now employed by the Arabs for 
making charcoal, and is therfore seldom allowed to attain to a great age. 
Oil is obtained from the olive tree, a native of Asia, and abounding 
in the south of Europe. Spices. Arabia is celebrated for its spices, 
which are here comprehended under a generic term. The precious 
stones are afterwards enumerated (xxviii. 16), and the ephod and 
breastplate described (xxviii. 6, 15). 

8, 9. A sanctuary. A holy place, where God might dwell among 
his people. Its chief distinction was its holiness, as it was to be among 
the children of the fall, who were morally impure. According to all 
that I show thee. I am about to show thee the pattern of the tabernacle, 
and of all things connected with it. The tabernacle itself was a type 
of the dwelling-place of the Most High in the heaven of heavens. But 
the pattern of it was the ideal form or plan according to which it was 
to be constructed for earthly use. The divine origin of this plan 
proves the profound significance of the tabernacle and all its appur- 
tenances. 

It is obvious that there is an analogy between the tabernacle service 
and the ritual of the Egyptians and other Gentiles. But it is equally 
obvious that the resemblance between them is not the result of servile 
imitation or simple adoption on the part of Moses. It is founded on 
deeper and more recondite principles. In the first place, the constitu- 
tion of the human race involves a fundamental similitude in the modes 
of human worship. This race was in its head created after the image 
of God in reason, will, and power, and then by an act of disobedience 
plunged into the abyss of guilt and sin. The common reason, though 
stunned by this fall, will arrive at certain common principles of religious 
truth, mingled and distorted, no doubt, by dark and fatal misconceptions. 
In the next place, tradition has left indelible traces of primeval facts 
and thoughts upon the mind of man, which have entered into combina- 
tion with the thousand strange and grotesque vagaries of a wanton 
imagination. And lastly, Moses was, in the providence of God, learned 
in all the wisdom of the Egyptians of that day, and equally familiarized 
with all the experience of the Midianites in the wilds of Arabia. 
Through a mind so trained for twice forty years the Lord was pleased 
37 



290 THE ARK 0F THE TESTIMONY. 

to convey to his people the written revelation of his will, the funda 
mental principles of his law, and the minute specifications of his worship. 
These facts are sufficient to account for the originality and independence 
of the Mosaic economy, and for the resemblances and differences which 
may be traced between it and the religious institutions of surrounding 
nations. It is to be expected, not that the early customs of the 
Egyptians and Midianites will throw much light on those of the 
Israelites, but rather that the latter in their plainly-written form will 
contribute to the elucidation of the former. And accordingly this 
expectation has already been in a very signal manner realized. The 
antiquities of Eastern nations, from Egypt to Assyria and Babylonia, 
are constantly receiving illustration from the Bible. 

10-16. The ark of the testimony. The ark, like the tabernacle 
itself, derives its whole importance from that which it contains. It is 
a box or chest of shittah wood. The shant of Egypt and Arabia grew 
to the height of twenty or twenty-five feet. Its wood was light, durable, 
and capable of taking a polish and of resisting damp. The cubit is the 
length from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger, and is variously 
estimated at a foot and a half and upwards to a foot and three quarters. 
It contains two spans, and each span three palms or handbreadths, 
The Babylonian cubit, which consisted of seven palms, seems to have 
been sometimes employed (2 Chron. iii. 3 ; Ezek. xl. 5), but only after 
the captivity. 11. And thou shalt overlay it This was not a mere 
gilding, but a covering of the surface with thin plates of gold, as we 
infer from 1 Kings vi. 16, and 2 Chron. iii. 6. The Talmud goes so 
far as to conclude that three chests were made, an outer one of gold 
plate, a middle one of shittah timber, and an inner one of gold plate. 
Upon it a crown of gold. This was a border or cornice of pure gold 
round the upper edge of the ark, adorning, and at the same time 
strengthening it for the support of the mercy -seat. 12. Four rings or 
staples of gold are to be fastened on the two sides or ends of the ark. 
They are to be attached to the feet or supports by which the ark was 
raised above the level of the floor. 13-15. The staves or poles were 
of acacia wood overlaid with gold. They passed through the rings at 
the ends of the ark, and as these were attached to the feet the ark was 
elevated above the bearers (1 Kings viii. 8). 16. Thou shalt put into 
the ark the testimony. This testimony is the ten commandments en- 



EXODUS XXV. 10-22. 291 

graven on the two tables of stone (xxxi. 18). These ten words are the 
testimony of the Lord to the people concerning the relation subsisting 
between them, and the duties consequent thereon. The contents of 
this cabinet distinguish it from all heathen chests of a similar kind in 
which were deposited certain symbols of the powers of nature which 
man regarded with a superstitious veneration. Here are placed the 
two tables, on which are traced in plain and literal characters the great 
principles of eternal rectitude, not as an object of worship, but as the 
basis of all moral dealing in the intercourse between God and man. 
There is a significance in the very order in which the portions of this 
symbolical structure are specified. The moral law is the very centre 
of the whole system of moral things ; and accordingly this is first 
defined and located. The ark in which it is to be deposited is the first 
article provided for the house of God. 

17-22. The mercy-seat. The ark is but a part of a greater whole ; 
and hence there is rightly no break here in the Hebrew text. The 
mercy-seat is not the mere covering of the ark, which had most 
probably a lid forming a constituent part of itself. It is a separate 
piece, composing, with the ark, a unity, not so much in outward form 
as in inward design. It is of pure gold, to denote that expiation 
maintains the unalterable sanctity of the moral law ; as everything 
must be absolutely perfect which proceeds from or comes into contact 
with God. Its length and breadth correspond with those of the ark 
which contains the testimony, as the propitiation must satisfy the law 
in all its length and breadth. Two cherubim. For a description of 
the cherubim, see on Gen. iii. 22-24. The cherubim here are 
symbolic figurations of those celestial attendants on the divine majesty. 
They are to be of. gold, as representative of pure and perfect beings. 
Of beaten work. They are to be formed by the hammer of malleable 
gold. 19. Out of the mercy-seat shall ye make the cherubim on its two 
ends. It appears from this that the cherubim on the two ends and 
the mercy-seat formed one piece of workmanship, either by beino- 
beaten out of one mass, or by being permanently fastened together 
into one whole. The former seems the more natural sense of the 
words. 20. These figures have wings, spread out so as to overshadow 
the mercy-seat ; and their faces are towards one another, and towards 
the mercy-seat. These cherubic figures had two wings and only one 



292 THE MERCY-SEAT. 

face. They had the attitude of observant attention, and guarded with 
their wings the place of the divine manifestation, as became the intel- 
ligent and potential ministers of the divine presence. These figures, 
then, are the symbolic indication of the Shekinah, or dwelling of God 
among men ; an abstraction which is often applied in Rabbinical style 
to the present Deity. 

21, 22. The mercy-seat on the ark from above. The mercy-seat, with 
the attentive overshadowing cherubs, is placed above the ark which 
contains the testimony. This arrangement is significant of the inter- 
course of God with fallen man, being founded on the basis of immutable 
rectitude, through a propitiation which meets all the demands of the 
violated law. And I will meet thee there, appoint a meeting, and meet 
thee by appointment. Hence the tabernacle is called the tent of 

meeting by appointment. And speak with thee of all that I 

command thee concerning the sons of Israel. This is to be the place 
of revelation. A definite place is necessary for man, especially in his 
infantile state, though not for God, who is omnipresent. The cherubim, 
however, are no part of Deity, and their figures no semblance of God. 
They merely indicate and mark the boundaries of the place where God 
manifests his presence. 

Hence we perceive, that the ark, mercy-seat, and cherubim form 
one piece of emblematic workmanship, symbolizing not God, but the 
atonement ; the holiness of God expressed by the law, and his mercy 
indicated by his manifested presence between the cherubim, being 
mediated or brought into harmony by the propitiation figured by the 
mercy-seat. The great fundamental principle of reconciliation is 
mooted here, to be afterwards developed and illustrated in the other 
parts of the tabernacle. From this centre of communication with God 
we proceed in this remarkable specification of the parts of the tabernacle 
toward the circumference where the communicating people assemble. 

23-30. The table. The table is of acacia, two cubits long, a cubit 
broad, and a cubit and a half high. It is overlaid with pure gold. A 
border rises a handbreadth from the leaf. This seems to be an addition 
to the table, and not the upper part of the trestle on which the leaf 
rests. The edge of this table, and that of the border upon it, are 
adorned with crowns or wreaths of gold, the one of which, therefore, 
appears at the top and the other at the base of the border. Four rings 



EXODUS XXV. 23-30. 293 

are attached to the legs over against the border, and therefore beneath 
the leaf, as keepers for the staves or poles on which it is to be borne. 
These staves, like the table, are to be overlaid with gold. 

29. Its dishes were bread-plates, of which two were placed on the 
table, containing six cakes each (Lev. xxiv. 5, 6). These cakes cannot 
have been ten handbreadths by five, according to Jewish tradition, as 
one dish holding such a cake would have occupied the whole table, 
which was only twelve handbreadths by six. Its bowls were smaller 
vessels for holding pure frankincense (Lev. xxiv. 7), which were placed 
upon the two piles of cakes. Its flagons were large cans or decanters, 
in which a supply of wine was kept for pouring into the cups or smaller 
vessels used for making libations or drink-offerings. The drink-offering 
varied from the fourth part to the half of a hin of wine, that is, from 
a pint and a half to three pints, according to the value of the victim 
(Num. xv. 1-12). The dishes, flagons, and cups must have been of 
such a size that two of each could stand conveniently on the table. 
The bread-trays might have been five by two and a half or three hand- 
breadths. 

30. Shew-bread. The shew-bread was to consist of twelve cakes, 
each made of two tenth deals, about three and a half quarts, of fine 
flour (Lev. xxiv. 5, 6). This is called shew-bread, or bread of the 
face, because it was on the table in the Lord's house, and brought 
God and man face to face on terms of reconciliation and communion. 
The table is the place of paternal and hospitable entertainment. The 
twelve cakes correspond in number with the twelve tribes of Israel. 
They may be called in one respect the united meat-offering of all the 
people ; but they have a higher significance when they are actually 
partaken of by the priests in the holy place (Lev. xxiv. 8, 9). In 
this respect they represent the abounding and all-sufficing blessings of 
eternal life, dispensed by God, as he manifests himself, and dwells 
among his people. The priest partaking of the bread represents the 
family of God bountifully and constantly regaled by him at his paternal 
board. The tabernacle swells to its true significance as the type of 
the heavenly home when God is surrounded by his intelligent creatures 
enjoying, each according to the measure of its capacity, the precious 
sweets of a susceptible moral existence. This home, however, is here 
presented in that aspect which alone is real, and at the same time 



294 THE CANDLESTICK. 

comfortable to the ransomed sons of a fallen race, the salvation of 
whom, through the superabounding graee of God, gives a touching 
character to, and sheds a mild lustre on, the heaven of man. It has 
its table spread with heavenly fare. The dishes are constantly replen- 
ished with bread, and the flagons and cups are not there without being 
filled with wine, which was the drink-offering accompanying every 
sacrifice. Bread and wine are the bloodless feast after the sacrifice, 
and are emblematical of all the blessings of those who are pardoned 
and accepted as righteous through the atoning sacrifice on the altar of 
propitiation (see on Gen. xiv. 18-20). 

31—40. Tlie candlestick. This was to be made of pure gold, beaten 
with the hammer Its block, or pedestal ; its shaft, or stalk ; its cups, 
its knops, and its flowers, ornaments on its branching stalks, shall be 
all of one piece. 32. Six branches come off, two and two, from the 
main shaft, at three separate points, in the same plane, and curved in 
the form of a quadrant, so that the lamps, resting -on their extremities, 
are all in the same horizontal line with that on the central stalk. 33. 
Three cups, in the form of an almond nut, were on each branch. These 
appear to have been surmounted by a knop or ball, like the apple of 
the pomegranate, and a flower which is not specifically described. 
34-36. And in the candlestick, that is, the main shaft, shall be four 
cups, knops, and flowers. Under each pair of branches, and under the 
central lamp, a cup, knop, and flower ; and all these beaten out of 
the one mass of gold. 37. The seven lamps rest on the flowers at the 
extremities of all the stems. He who sets on the lamps shall place 
the candlestick with its lamps parallel to the south side of the taber- 
nacle, so as to throw its whole radiance on the opposite side, where 
the table is situated. 38. The snuff-tongs and snuff-dishes explain 
themselves. 39. The whole is to be made of a talent, about one 
hundred and twenty pounds of gold. Jewish tradition fixes the height 
of the candlestick at three cubits, or twice the height of the table. 
This fits it for throwing light over the table, and is therefore more 
probable than the conjecture of Bahr, that its height was a cubit and 
a half, or equal to that of the table. The same tradition estimates 
the breadth at two cubits, the same as that of the table. The candle- 
stick was placed on the south side of the holy place, probably at the 
middle, opposite the table of shew-bread. 



EXODUS XXVI. 295 

As a piece of furniture, the candlestick evidently serves to give light 
to those who are in the tabernacle or home of God. It is an emblem 
of spiritual light. The sevenfold light is the sanctifying efficacy of 
the Spirit, as seven is the number of holiness. The three pieces of 
furniture already described are evidently regarded by the divine 
revealer as forming one whole, since at the close of their specification 
Moses is solemnly admonished in these words ; " and see that thou 
make them after their pattern, which thou wast shown in the mount." 
This ideal unity rests in the salvation of the sinner that returns to 
God, which consists of peace with God, represented by the mercy-seat ; 
propitiation, the benefits of which are set forth in the table, with its 
bread and wine ; and purification, which is symbolized by the candle- 
stick. The number three appears not only in the mercy-seat, with the 
tables of the law beneath, and the cherubim of the divine presence 
above ; but also in the ark, the table, and the candlestick. It points 
to a trinity of persons in the unity of the Godhead. 



CHAP. XXYI.— THE TABERNACLE. 

1. "J3'ija dwelling, abode, habitation, mansion. This consists of the 
inner curtains or set of curtains, the tabernacle proper or booth i"OD, 
and the tent bnx the outer set of curtains or awning of goats' hair. 
The two additional coverings of rams' skins and badgers' or seals' 
skins are designed to protect the inner fabric from the weather. 

3'rn a weaver who raises figures in the web. 3^ a plaiter or 
weaver in general. C£h an embroiderer who works figures with the 
needle. 

XXYI. 1. And the tabernacle thou shalt make with ten cur- 
tains of fine linen twined, and blue, and purple, and crimson ; 
\rith cherubim of cunning work shalt thou make them. 2. The 
length of one curtain shall be eight and twenty cubits, and 
the breadth of one curtain four cubits : all the curtains shall 
have one measure. 3. Five curtains shall be coupled one to 
another ; and five curtains coupled one to another. 4. And 



296 THE TABERNACLE. 

thou shalt make loops of blue on the selvedge of the first 
curtain at the end of the coupling : and so shalt thou make on 
the selvedge of the last curtain in the second coupling. 5. Fifty 
loops shalt thou make in the first curtain, and fifty loops shalt 
thou make in the edge of the curtain that is in the second 
coupling: the loops matching one another. 6. And thou 
shalt make fifty taches of gold, and couple the curtains one to 
another with the taches ; and the tabernacle shall be one. 

7. And thou shalt make curtains of goats' hair for a tent 
over the tabernacle ; eleven curtains shalt thou make. 8. 
The length of one curtain shall be thirty cubits, and the 
breadth of one curtain four cubits : the eleven curtains shall 
have one measure. 9. And thou shalt couple five curtains 
by themselves, and six curtains by themselves ; and thou shalt 
double the sixth curtain in the fore-front of the tent. 10. And 
thou shalt make fifty loops on the selvedge of the one curtain 
that is last in the coupling, and fifty loops on the selvedge of 
the curtain in the second coupling. 11. And thou shalt make 
fifty taches of brass, and put the taches into the loops, and join 
the tent, and it shall be one. 12. And the remnant that is 
over of the curtains of the tent, the half curtain that is over 
shall hang over the back of the tabernacle. 13. And the cubit 
on this side, and the cubit on that side, that are over in the 
length of the curtains of the tent shall hang over the sides 
of the tabernacle on this side and on that to cover it. 14. 
And thou shalt make a covering for the tent of rams' skins 
dyed red, and a covering of badgers' skins from above, ^j" 42. 

15. And thou shalt make boards for the tabernacle of shittah 
wood standing up. 16. Ten cubits shall be the length of a 
board, and a cubit and a half the breadth of one board. 17. 
Two tenons shall be to one board, set alike one to another: 
thus shalt thou make for all the boards of the tabernacle. 18. 



EXODUS XXVI. 297 

And thou shalt make the boards for the tabernacle, twenty 
boards on the south side southwards. 19. And thou shalt make 
forty sockets of silver under the twenty boards ; two sockets 
under one board for its two tenons, and two sockets under 
another board for its two tenons. 20. And for the second 
side of the tabernacle northwards there shall be twenty boards ; 
21. And their forty sockets of silver ; two sockets under one 
board, and two sockets under another board. 22. And for the 
rear of the tabernacle westward thou shalt make six boards. 
23. And two boards shalt thou make for the corners of the 
tabernacle in the rear. 24. And they shall be doubled beneath, 
and together they shall be complete at the top for the one 
ring : thus shall it be for the two of them ; they shall be for 
the two corners. 25. And they shall be eight boards, and 
their sockets of silver sixteen sockets ; two sockets under one 
board, and two sockets under another board. 26. And thou 
shalt make bars of shittah wood, five for the boards of the one 
side of the tabernacle ; 27. And five bars for the boards of 
the other side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the boards of 
the side of the tabernacle to the rear westward. 28. And the 
middle bar in the middle of the boards shall reach from end to 
end. 29. And thou shalt overlay the boards with gold, and 
make their rings of gold to be places for the bars ; and thou 
shalt overlay the bars with gold. 30. And thou shalt set up 
the tabernacle according to the fashion thereof which thou 
wast shown in the mount. § 61. 

31. And thou shalt make a vail of blue, and purple, and 
crimson, and fine linen twined, of cunning work shalt thou 
make it, with cherubim. 32. And thou shalt hang it upon 
four pillars of shittah, overlaid with gold, with their hooks of 
gold, upon four sockets of silver. 33. And thou shalt hang up 
the vail under the taches, and shalt bring in thither within the 
38 



298 THE TABERNACLE. 

vail the ark of the testimony ; and the vail shall divide unto 
you between the holy place and the most holy. 34. And thou 
shalt put the mercy-seat upon the ark of the testimony in the 
most holy place. 35. And thou shalt set the table without the 
vail, and the candlestick over against the table on the side of 
the tabernacle southward ; and thou shalt put the table on the 
side of the north. 36. And thou shalt make a covering for 
the door of the tent of blue, and purple, and crimson, and fine 
linen twined, wrought with needlework. 37. And thou shalt 
make for the covering five pillars of shittah, and thou shalt 
overlay them with gold, with their hooks of gold ; and thou 
shalt cast for them five sockets of brass. § 62. 

After laying down the plan of those pieces of domestic furniture 
which shadow forth the ultimate form and loftiest stage of salvation 
for man, we descend to the habitation in which these are to be placed. 
The tabernacle proper occupies the middle of the three chapters devoted 
to the material things. It comes after the things contained as the 
accessory after the principal. 

1-17. TJie mansion. The word tabernacle applies chiefly to the 
wooden structure (n30) originally covered with boughs and leaves of 
trees. The mansion is a more general term, referring to its use as an 
abode. It has been replaced in our version by the word tabernacle, 
which is hallowed in our early associations, and serves the purpose of 
a free rendering sufficiently well. The mansion or abode consists 
internally of a pavilion or set of ten curtains of fine linen thread, 
interwoven with threads of blue, purple, and crimson. The spinning of 
the yarn was generally, but not exclusively, the work of women, while 
the weaving was more frequently done by men. These arts were well 
known among the Egyptians, as we learn from their numerous and 
interesting monuments. Figures of cherubim were raised on the 
curtains. These were the stated attendants on the Divine Majesty, 
and were therefore appropriate in his symbolic abode. 2. The ten 
curtains covered a surface of twenty-eight by forty cubits. 3. Ten is 
the number of completeness. For convenience five of these were 



EXODUS XXVI. 1-15. 299 

coupled or stitched together into one piece, and the remaining five into 
another. 4. For the purpose of connecting these two halves the outer 
edges of the two middle curtains are provided with loops. 5. Of these 
loops there were fifty, and therefore forty-nine intervals in twenty- 
eight cubits, or seven intervals in four cubits. The distance between 
the loops was about ten or twelve inches. 6. These loops were conjoined 
by fifty taches of gold, and the ten curtains were thus formed into one 
mishkan or mansion. This constitutes the inner curtain, which cor- 
responds to the tapestry of later times, or to the plastering and papering 
of our modern dwellings. It covered the tops, the sides, and the western 
end of the tabernacle. The cherubic figures, we may suppose, were so 
placed on the cloth that they were upright on the end wall of the 
tabernacle, so that they would appear upright above and on the sides 
to an eye placed above the mercy-seat. 

7-15. The tent and its coverings are next described. Curtains of 
goats' hair form the usual tent in the East. The tent (^nK) is here 
distinguished from the mishkan. The one is cast or spread over the 
other (xl. 19). Eleven curtains composed the tent. 8. They are of 
the same breadth as the former curtains, but longer by two cubits. 
9. One part is formed by sewing five curtains, the other by sewing six 
curtains together. Half the breadth of the sixth curtain in this part of 
the tent is to be doubled, that is, to hang over the front of the taber- 
nacle. In this way the seam of the upper curtains would always be 
over the middle of the lower curtains. 10, 11. The two parts are 
connected in the same way as before. 12. The tent covers the top, 
sides, and end of the tabernacle, and as there is an additional length of 
four cubits, the one half of it hangs over in front and the other remains 
over in the rear. 13. The single curtain is longer by two cubits thau 
that of the mishkan, and therefore allows a cubit to hang over on each 
side. The difference is needful, because the one curtain is within and 
the other without the boards of the tabernacle. 14. The coverings of 
red rams' skins and of badgers' skins afford protection from the rain. 

15-30. The wooden framework, or tabernacle proper. After the 
pliant materials we come to the firm part of the structure. The shittah, 
shant, or acacia tree, grows to a considerable height. The use of the 
plural number, however, admits of one of these boards being composed 
of more than one trunk. 16. Each board is ten cubits long and a 



300 THE TABERNACLE. 

cubit and a half broad, that is, at least fifteen feet by two and a quarter. 
As the tabernacle was ten cubits wide, and six boards, or a breadth of 
nine cubits, seem to complete the end (vs. 22), it is probable that the 
boards were half a cubit thick at the bottom. It is most likely, how- 
ever, that, for the sake of lightness, they tapered on the outside to a 
thickness at the top of an eighth of a cubit. In this way the inside 
would be vertical, the outside slightly sloping, the boards would have 
a more stable position and be sufficiently strong, and some difficulties 
in the conception of the structure would be removed. 17. The tenons 
seem to form part of the length or height of the boards. They are 
" set alike," or symmetrically situated on the ends of the boards. If 
they were half a cubit deep, the curtains of the mishkan, being twenty- 
eight cubits long, would exactly cover the top, of nine cubits, and the 
sides, being nine and a half cubits each above the socket or mortise. 
18. Twenty boards, each a cubit and a half broad, will form aside wall 
thirty cubits long. 19. The forty sockets of silver either rested on 
the ground or were attached to a solid sleeper of wood laid on the 
ground. The latter method would give the greater stability to the 
structure. 20, 21. The north side corresponds to the south. 22-25. 
The six boards seem to close in the west end, which they will do if the 
side boards be half a cubit thick at bottom and the measurement be 
from outside to outside. The corner boards are different from the 
others. If the end wall be placed at right angles to the side wall so 
that their vertical boundary lines coincide, their ends will leave a right 
angle to be occupied by the corner boards. Let the base of the corner 
board be a square cubit, wanting a square half-cubit on the outer corner, 
and let it taper on all its outer sides to a top that shall be a square 
eighth of a cubit. It is obvious that this board will be " doubled " or 
twinned beneath, as it will have two projecting parts at right angles to 
each other. Its base will be half a cubit thick, and so correspond with 
the thickness of the others. Its breadth will be a cubit every way, 
and so it will fill up the void square at the corner, and project half a 
cubit in the direction of the side and the end. Being reduced at the 
top of the mishkan to a square of an eighth of a cubit, it will exactly 
fill the square at the top, and so be " complete." One ring or clamp 
of metal will serve to make it fast to the adjacent boards of the sides 
and end. As its breadth, omitting the part that is counted a second 



EXODUS XXVI. 26-37. 301 

time, is a cubit and a half, it has two tenons like the other boards. 
This seems to be an intelligible explanation of this somewhat obscure 
description. 

26-28. As the middle bar in the middle of the boards reached from 
end to end, it is probable that the other bars were half its length, and 
hence that three rows of rings or keepers ran along the sides — one in 
the middle for the full length bars, and the other two between this and 
the extremities. As the lower ends of the boards were fastened by 
the sockets, it is not improbable that the upper ends were in some 
way secured. 29. It is generally supposed that the bars were on the 
outside, and therefore the boards were overlaid on the outside as well 
as the inside with gold, as Josephus asserts. But it is possible that 
the bars were on the inside, and the boards only overlaid with gold 
on the inner side. This would give greater lightness to the boards, 
and would afford the greater reason for making the keepers of gold 
and overlaying the bars. But the point in question is of little impor- 
tance. 30. A visible form of the tabernacle was presented to the mind 
of Moses on the mount, according to which it was to be constructed. 

31-37. The vails and their pillars are now described. The first 
vail was to be of the same material, color, and pattern as the interior 
curtains of the mansion. 32. The pillars would probably be half a 
cubit in diameter at the base. If one were placed in contact with each 
wall, the three equal spaces would measure two and a third cubits, or 
about three and a half feet. 33. The vail is to be suspended under 
the taches of gold connecting the two halves of the internal covering. 
Hence it separates the tabernacle into two parts — the most holy place 
of ten cubits, and the holy place of twenty. If the pillars were outside 
the vail, the interior of the most holy place would be curtained on 
every side. 34, 35. The tabernacle being now divided into its com- 
partments, the position of the articles of furniture already made is 
determined. The ark of the testimony is to stand at the middle of 
the western wall in the most holy place. It is probable that the table 
occupied the middle of the north side, and the candlestick that of the 
south side. We have already seen that these three articles form a 
unity of symbolic meaning in themselves, apart from the articles yet to 
be described (xxv. 40). 

36, 37. The covering or outer vail is of the same material and colors 



302 THE ALTAR AND THE COURT. 

as the inner, but it differs in other respects. The figuration is wrought 
not by the loom, but by the needle ; and the cherubim are not men- 
tioned. It is possible, however, that they were raised on the inner, 
but not on the outer, side of the hanging ; as the latter was exposed to 
rain, and outside of the tabernacle or presence-hall of God. As the 
pillars had sockets of a less costly metal, it is probable that they were 
regarded as external to the tabernacle, and were, therefore, outside the 
hanging. If the two extreme pillars stood at the ends of the sides, 
the other three divided the east end of the tabernacle into four 
openings of fifteen eights of a cubits, or about thirty-four inches each. 
These pillars were adorned with chapiters, and provided with connect- 
ing poles or rods on which the covering was supported by hooks 
(xxxvi. 38). We are not informed whether the capitals were sur- 
mounted by a beam or architrave, giving compactness to the whole 
front of the tabernacle. 



CHAP. XXVTI.— THE ALTAR AND THE COURT. 

XXVII. 1. And thou shalt make the altar of shittah wood ; 
five cubits long and five cubits broad ; square shall the altar 
be ; and the height thereof shall be three cubits. 2. And thou 
shalt make the horns of it upon the four corners thereof: its 
horns shall be of the same ; and thou shalt overlay it with 
brass. 3. And thou shalt make its boxes to remove its ashes, 
and its shovels, and its basins, and its flesh-hooks, and its fire- 
pans : all its vessels thou shalt make of brass. 4. And thou 
shalt make for it a grate, a network of brass ; and thou shalt 
make on the net four brazen rings on its four corners. 5. 
And thou shalt put it under the border of the altar beneath, 
and the net shall be unto the half of the altar. 6. And thou 
shalt make staves for the altar, staves of shittah wood, and 
overlay them with brass. 7. And its staves shall be put into 
the rings, and the staves shall be upon the two sides of the 



exodus xxvn. 303 

altar to bear it. Hollow, of boards, slialt thou make it ; as it 
was shown thee in the mount so shall they make it. § 63. 

9. And thou shalt make the court of the tabernacle : for the 
south side southward shall be hangings for the court of twined 
fine linen, a hundred cubits long for the one side. 10. And 
its pillars twenty, and their sockets twenty, of brass ; the hooks 
of the pillars and their rods of silver. 11. And likewise for 
the north side in length shall be hangings a hundred cubits 
long : and its pillars twenty, and their sockets twenty, of brass ; 
the hooks of the pillars and their rods of silver. 12. And for 
the breadth of the court on the west side shall be hangings of 
fifty cubits. 13. And the breadth of the court on the east side 
eastward shall be fifty cubits. 14. Fifteen cubits shall be the 
hangings for the one wing : their pillars three and their sockets 
three. 15. And for the other wing the hangings shall be fifteen 
cubits ; their pillars three and their sockets three. 16. And 
for the gate of the court shall be a covering of twenty cubits 
of blue, and purple, and crimson, and twined fine linen, 
wrought with the needle ; and their pillars four and their 
sockets four. 17. All the pillars of the court round about 
shall be joined with rods of silver ; their hooks shall be of 
silver and their sockets of brass. 18. The length of the court 
shall be a hundred cubits, and the breadth fifty everywhere ; 
and the height five cubits of twined fine linen, and their 
sockets of brass. 19. All the vessels of the tabernacle in all 
the service thereof, and all its pins and the pins of the court 
shall be of brass. 20. § § § 64. 

20. And thou shalt command the children of Israel, and 
they shall bring thee pure olive oil beaten for the light, to set 
up a continual lamp. 21. In the tent of meeting without the 
vail, which is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall 
order it from evening to morning before the Lord : a statute 
for ever to their generations from the sons of Israel. § Q5. 



304 THE ALTAR AND THE COURT. 

We now pass into the court of the tabernacle. The chief object 
here is the great altar. In the holy of holies we have the ark of 
testimony, an adumbration of mercy and truth met together. In the 
holy place we find the table and the candlestick, the emblems of justi- 
fication and sanctification. In the court we come upon the altar, the 
symbol of propitiation, standing alone in all its solemn impressiveness. 
This is the order of things in the history of redemption. The purpose 
of mercy is formed in the divine breast. The blessings of spiritual 
renovation and heavenly inheritance forthwith begin to be dispensed, 
The atonement, through which these legally come, is made in the ful- 
ness of time. Hence we perceive that the plan of the tabernacle first 
leads us down by sensible stages from God to man. 

1-8. The altar. All former appearances of the altar were occa- 
sional : now at length it comes before us as a permanent institution. 
Its framework is composed of the shant, the only timber employed 
about the tabernacle. Its horizontal surface is a square of five cubits, 
or seven and a half feet, and its height three cubits, or four and a 
half feet. 2. Its horns shall be of the same. We conceive that the 
angle posts of this primitive wilderness altar were three cubits high. 
The horns were the parts of these posts that projected above the upper 
surface of the altar. If they were half a cubit in height, the table or 
upper plane of the altar would be three and three quarters feet from 
the ground. At this height the priest could perform all his functions 
with convenience standing on the ground. The wooden frame is wholly 
overlaid with plates of brass, which would preserve it from the weather 
and the fire. 3. The boxes for removing the ashes, the shovels for 
transferring them to the boxes, the basins for sprinkling or pouring 
the blood, the flesh-hooks, and the fire-pans, were to be made of brass. 
4, 5. The brazen grate of network has been variously interpreted. 
Many, including Kurtz and Keil, understand by the border (3313) a 
ledge half a cubit or a cubit broad going round the altar at half its 
height, on which the priest might stand when officiating, and by the 
grate a network descending from its outer edge to the ground. But 
it is obvious that the whole structure, being thus eight or nine feet 
square, with a large quantity of metal, would be too heavy and cum- 
brous to be portable. Moreover, the rings for the bearing poles, 
being attached to the grate, would be at the extreme edges of this 



EXODUS XXVII 1-19. 305 

square, and therefore placed in the most inconvenient situation either 
for carrying or preventing a strain on the article to be carried. Kalisch 
supposes the border to be at the top of the altar, and the grate to reach 
down to the half height of the altar. But if the grate " reached down 
from the border to the middle of the altar," we do not see how it could 
" receive whatever might fall from the altar," or what other purpose 
it could serve. And it does not seem to have been merely an ornament. 
By " the half of the altar " we understand not half its height, but half 
its horizontal area. The grate would in that case be a square of nearly 
five and a quarter feet in the middle of the area, surrounded by a margin 
two and a quarter feet broad. This margin, covered at least with a 
thick layer of brass, would be the border (asnsj) beneath the inner 
edge of which the brazen grate would be fixed to contain the fire 
beneath the sacrifice. The fine ashes would fall through the meshes 
of the network on the ground, to be removed when convenient. This 
explanation is so far favored by the Sept. that both the border and the 
grate are rendered by the ia^apa, a hearth. It is to the same extent 
supported by Josephus (Antiq. iii. 7, 8). The grate also thus comes 
out to be an essential part of the altar, and a compactness is given to 
the whole structure. The four rings seem to be the keepers for the 
staves by which the altar was to be carried. 6, 7. The staves are to be 
put into the rings, and are said to be on the two sides of the altar. 
The word for side here (s&s) means not the mere surface, but the 
lateral portion of a thing, and therefore the staves passing through 
rings attached to the outer edges of the grate may be fairly said to be 
on the sides of the altar. An article so weighty would have to be 
borne on the shoulders of four or eight men. 8. The boarding may 
not have extended beyond two cubits, leaving half a cubit of the corner 
posts above for horns, and half a cubit beneath for feet. This simple 
structure would afford the lightest, and therefore fittest, form for a 
portable altar of the given dimensions. The grate may have been a 
cubit deep. 

9-19. The court. The altar is the principal thing, secondary to 
which is the court in which it stands. 9-12. The court is a hundred 
cubits long from east to west and fifty cubits broad. The hanging 
seems to have been a web of fine linen five cubits broad. This was 
suspended on silver rods, supported by twenty pillars on each side and 
39 



306 THE ALTAE AND THE COURT. 

ten on the west end. 13-16. On the east side are two wings or shoul 
ders (wjns) of fifteen cubits, and a gate of twenty. The pillars are 
reckoned by Philo at fifty-six, the corner ones being twice counted. 
But in this way the distance between the pillars at the side would be 
different from that between those at the end, and the account of the 
east end would be unintelligible without counting the extreme pillars 
of the gate twice, and so having eight pillars instead of ten, and two 
other unequal intervals. All is plain, however, when we accept the 
sixty pillars. Beginning at the east end of the north side we attach 
the hanging to the corner pillar, but do not count it. After that we 
count twenty pillars for the twenty equal lengths of five cubits in the 
one hundred. Beginning again at the north end of the west side, we 
do not count the corner one, as it was counted already, and ten equal 
lengths bring us to the fifty cubits of that end with its ten pillars. So 
we proceed with the south side. And the south shoulder has three 
pillars beside the corner one counted before. The gate has four beside 
the extreme one south counted before. And the north shoulder has 
three pillars including the corner one not counted at first. 17. The 
pillars are provided with hooks, on which the rods that connect them 
and support the enclosing canvas rest. The hooks and rods are of 
silver. We are informed also that the pillars have chapiters overlaid 
with silver (xxviii. 17). The sockets in which they are inserted are 
of brass. The pillars themselves are usually supposed to be of wood, 
though the material is not mentioned in the text. The overlaying of 
the chapiters with silver favors this view. 19. All the vessels of the 
tabernacle, with the exceptions already made, were to be of brass. 
The pins were for fastening the tent and its coverings, and probably 
the pillars of the courts. 

The place of the tabernacle we hold to be, not exactly in the middle 
of the court, as Josephus may be construed to mean, but, as Philo 
explains, twenty cubits from the west, north, and south sides of the 
court. For in this way a perfect square of fifty cubits is left in front, 
to be occupied by the great altar and the laver, with the company of 
officials and worshippers, as we shall see hereafter. 

The altar is representative of the earth, on which sin has been com- 
mitted and propitiation has to be made. Its four sides also correspond 
with the four quarters of the world. Its elevation intimates the lifting 



exodus xxvn. 19-21. 307 

up of the sacrifice to the Holy Governor by whom it must be exacted. 
The horns are emblems of power, and denote the virtue of sacrifice in 
procuring remission of sin and all its concomitant blessings. The breadth 
of the altar is five cubits ; that of the court is five tens of cubits, the 
half of its length, and the height of the pillars of the court is five cubits. 
These are contrasted with ten, three, and one, the numerical factors in 
the tabernacle. They adumbrate in their own way the pre-eminence 
of the tabernacle, which is the type of heaven (Heb. ix. 24), over the 
court, which is the figurative semblance of the earth. And the manifold 
connections between them, as well as the presence of the altar in the 
court, indicate the design that the earth should eventually become a 
constituent part of the kingdom of heaven. We have seen that the ark 
of the covenant forms a triad in itself, that the ark, the candlestick, and 
the table form another ; and now we notice that the most holy, the 
holy place, and the court form a third. 

20, 21. The oil for the lamps. Olive oil. This is uniformly em- 
ployed for lights in the sanctuary and for anointing. It is a vegetable 
oil, and fit for the purpose of signifying illumination and sanctification. 
The fat of beasts was employed to represent propitiation. Pure, taken 
from the olive alone. Beaten, obtained from olives not pressed in a 
press, but pounded in a mortar. The latter is said to be a sweeter, 
finer oil, and of a whiter color. To set up a continual lamp, a lamp 
that shall burn without interruption, that is, every night, in the sanc- 
tuary. Some suppose, however, that at least one of the seven lamps on 
the candlestick was allowed to burn all day, so that a perpetual flame 
was kept up in the tabernacle. In the tent of meeting or appointment. 
The tabernacle is here called the tent, because it is viewed from the 
exterior, where it was a tent, not from the interior, where it was a 
mishkan or pavilion. It is designated the tent of meeting, because at 
its door or at the gate of its court was the place for the appointed times 
of the Lord's meeting with his people. The gate, in the East, was the 
customary place of meeting and transacting business between prince 
and people. Hence to this day we have the Ottoman Porte. Without 
the vail in the holy place stood the candlestick. Aaron and his sons were 
to set the lamps on the candlestick and light them in the evening, and 
in the morning clean them and supply them with fresh oil (xxx. 7, 8 ; 
Lev. xxiii. 3, 4) . A statute for ever, an institution to be observed as 



308 THE ATTIRE OF THE PRIESTS. 

long as the whole ceremonial economy should remain in force. From 
the sons of Israel, to be supplied by them for this sacred use. 

A new synagogue lesson begins with these two verses, whereby their 
connection with that which follows is signalized. They form indeed a 
transition from the tabernacle to the priest of the tabernacle. The oil 
for the lamps of the candlestick is naturally mentioned here that we 
may not leave the tabernacle without light. The light indeed is em- 
blematic of the light of him who is Light, and who enlightens his own 
transcendent dwelling-place (Rev. xxi. 23). It serves also to indicate 
the need of a minister of the tabernacle, and so to prepare the way for 
the office and array of the high priest. 



CHAP. XXVIII. — THE ATTIRE OF THE PRIESTS. 

4. *jttJn breast-piece-, r. be fair or graceful. It is perhaps connected 
with "js'n the breast ; r. be strong, firm, ^isx ephod, a jacket or 
shoulder-piece ; r. draw on, over, or round. We robe, a second 
tunic, without sleeves, worn under the ephod, reaching to the knees ; 
r. cover or extend. P3isp mitre, tiara ; r. wind. wax girdle ; 
r. bind. 

17. D'Vx adpSiov, a stone of a red color, the sardius or carnelian 
rvn"JB T07ra£iov, the topaz of Kush (Job xxvii. 19). It is generally of 
a yellow color ; which agrees with von Bohlen's derivation from the 
Sanscrit pita, yellow, npna oyx-apaySos ; r. flash. It is akin to the 
emerald. 

18. T|Sb avOpai, carbuncle or ruby. ^B& o-a7r$cipos, sapphire; r. 
scrape, polish. D'brn lao-Tu?; r. beat, strike. Some make this the 
emerald. It may be the diamond, as others take it. 

19. Dttft Xiyvpiov, a kind of hyacinth, iad dxa-n??, agate, a com- 
pound of quartz, chalcedony, carnelian, jasper, and other ingredients. 
rrabns afxiBvo-Tos ; r. dream. It was supposed to have the power of 
causing dreams. 

20. El-nans) xpvo-oAtflos. A gem of Tarshish or Tartessus in Spain, 
qfiffl ow£, as the Sept. elsewhere gives. It is of a pale color, like the 
human nail. fiSi2£ tao-7rts ; r. shine, be smooth. A stone of a bright 
green color. 



exodus xxvm. 309 

22. rrtbsa a bordering or connecting ; r. border. Others render it 
a twisting or wreathing. 

30. d^sin lights, d^xan perfections, rights. 

XXVIII. 1. And thou bring near for thee Aaron thy brother, 
and his sons with him, from among the sons of Israel, to act as 
priests unto me ; Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, Eleazer and Itha- 
mar, Aaron's sons. 2. And thou shalt make holy garments for 
Aaron thy brother for glory and for beauty. 3. And thou 
shalt speak unto all the wise of heart, whom I have filled with 
the spirit of wisdom ; and they shall make Aaron's garments, 
to consecrate him to act as priest unto me. 4. And these are 
the garments which they shall make ; a breastplate, and an 
ephod, and a robe, and a chequered coat, a mitre and a girdle : 
and they shall make holy garments for Aaron thy brother, and 
for his sons to act as priests unto me. 5. And they shall take 
gold, and blue, and purple, and crimson, and fine linen, ^f 43. 

6. And they shall make the ephod of gold, blue, and purple, 
crimson and twined fine linen, with cunning work. 7. It shall 
have two shoulder-straps joining it ; at the two edges thereof 
shall it be joined. 8. And the belt for fastening it, which is 
upon it, according to the work thereof, shall be of the same ; 
of gold, of blue, and purple, and crimson, and twined fine 
linen. 9. And thou shalt take two onyx stones, and grave on 
them the names of the sons of Israel. 10. Six of their names 
on the one stone, and the names of the other six on the second 
stone, according to their birth. 11. With the work of an 
engraver in stone, the engravings of a signet, shalt thou grave 
the two stones with the names of the sons of Israel : enclosed 
in ouches of gold shalt thou make them. 12. And thou shalt 
put the two stones upon the shoulders of the ephod, to be 
stones of memorial for the sons of Israel: and Aaron shall 



310 THE ATTIRE OF THE PRIESTS. 

bear their names before the Lord upon his two shoulders for a 
memorial. §66. 

13. And thou shalt make ouches of gold. 14. And two 
chains of pure gold, attaching shalt thou make them, of 
wreathen work, and thou shalt fasten the wreathen chains on 
the ouches. § 67. 

15. And thou shalt make the breastplate of judgment with 
cunning work ; after the work of the ephod shalt thou make 
it : of gold, of blue, and purple, and crimson, and twined fine 
linen, shalt thou make it. 16. It shall be square, doubled ; a 
span shall be its length, and a span shall be its breadth. 17. 
And thou shalt set in it settings of stone, four rows of stones ; 
a row of sardius, topaz, and emerald, shall be the first row. 
18. And the second row a carbuncle, a sapphire, and a dia- 
mond. 19. And the third row, a ligure, an agate, and an 
amethyst. 20. And the fourth row a chrysolite, and an onyx, 
and a jasper ; they shall be mounted with gold in their settings. 
21. And the stones shall be with the names of the sons of 
Israel, twelve, according to their names ; with the engravings 
of a signet, each with its name, shall they be for the twelve 
tribes. 22. And thou shalt make upon the breastplate attach- 
ing chains of wreathen work of pure gold. 23. And thou shalt 
make upon the breastplate two rings of gold, and put the two 
rings on the two ends of the breastplate. 24. And thou shalt 
put the two cords of gold in the two rings on the ends of the 
breastplate. 25. And the other two ends of the two cords 
thou shalt fasten on the two ouches, and put them on the 
shoulders of the ephod, in front of it. 26. And thou shalt 
make two rings of gold, and put them upon the two ends of 
the breastplate, on the border thereof which is on the side 
of the ephod inward. 27. And thou shalt make two rings of 
gold, and put them on the shoulder-straps of the ephod beneath, 



EXODUS XXVIII. 311 

in the front of it, over against the joining thereof, above the 
belt of the ephod. 28. And they shall bind the breastplate by 
its rings to the rings of the ephod with a lace of blue, to be 
upon the belt of the ephod, that the breastplate be not loosed 
from the ephod. 29. And Aaron shall bear the names of the 
sons of Israel in the breastplate of judgment upon his heart, 
when he goeth into the holy place, for a memorial before the 
Lord continually. 30. And thou shall put in the breastplate the 
Urim and the Tummin : and they shall be upon Aaron's heart 
when he goeth in before the Lord : and Aaron shall bear the 
judgment of the sons of Israel upon his heart before the Lord 
continually. § 68. 

31. And thou shalt make the robe of the ephod all of blue. 

32. And there shall be a hole for the head in the midst 
thereof: it shall have a binding round the hole of it of woven 
work, as it were the hole of a habergeon, that it be not rent. 

33. And thou shalt make upon the hem of it pomegranates of 
blue, and purple, and crimson, round about the hem thereof; 
and bells of gold between them round about. 34. A bell of 
gold and a pomegranate, a bell of gold and a pomegranate, 
upon the hem of the robe round about. 35. And it shall be 
upon Aaron to minister : and his sound shall be heard when 
he goeth into the holy place before the Lord, and when he 
cometh out ; and he shall not die. § 69. 

36. And thou shalt make a plate of pure gold, and grave 
upon it with the engravings of a signet, holiness to the Lord. 

37. And thou shalt put it on a lace of blue, and it shall be 
upon the mitre ; upon the forefront of the mitre shall it be. 

38. And it shall be upon Aaron's forehead, and Aaron shall 
bear the iniquity of the holy things, which the sons of Israel 
shall hallow in all their holy gifts : and it shall be upon his 
forehead continually, that they may be accepted before the 
Lord. 



312 THE ATTIRE OF THE PRIESTS. 

39. And thou shalt weave in figures the coat of linen, and 
thou shalt make a mitre of linen, and thou shalt make a girdle 
of needlework. 

40. And for Aaron's sons thou shalt make coats, and thou 
shalt make for them girdles, and bonnets shalt thou make for 
them for glory and beauty. 41. And thou shalt put them 
upon Aaron thy brother, and his sons with him ; and thou 
shalt anoint them, and fill their hand, and sanctify them, and 
they shall be priests unto me. 42. And make for them linen 
breeches to cover the flesh of nakedness ; from the loins even 
unto the thighs shall they be. 43. And they shall be upon 
Aaron and upon his sons when they go into the tent of meet- 
ings, or when they draw nigh to the altar to minister in the 
holy place ; and they shall not bear iniquity or die : a statute 
for ever to him and to his seed after him. § 70. 

As soon as we arrive at the altar we feel the need of the priest who 
is to officiate thereat. The priest stands at the middle point between 
God and man in this description. Hitherto we have come forth from 
God to man. With the priest we shall presently return from man 
to God. From God the priest comes to man, authorized to invite the 
sinner to return with penitence, confession, and faith to God, and to 
make the propitiatory sacrifice for all who return. From man he 
returns to God, having made propitiation, to make prevailing interces- 
sion for all whom he represents. His generic character then is to be 
the mediator between God and man, authorized on the one hand, and 
accepted on the other. His specific difference is, that, inasmuch as man 
is sinful, he has to make the expiation that satisfies for sin, and renders 
his mediation effectual. The present chapter enjoins the calling and 
clothing of Aaron and his sons in official robes. The garments of the 
priests are so minutely specified, not because the outer covering is of 
any importance in itself, provided it be only decent and comely, but 
because it is intended to be symbolic of the various duties which the 
priest has to perform. This design comes out again and again in the 
description, and gives an instructive significance to matters which 



EXODUS XXVIII. 1-5. 313 

would otherwise have been left to the taste of the individual. Teach- 
ing by figures was peculiarly appropriate in the infantile state of the 
world, when men had their very ideas yet to form, and oral instruction 
and literary education were open to a very few. 

1-5. The call to the priesthood, and the general enumeration of the 
priestly garments. And thou. Moses has been hitherto the plenipo- 
tentiary of heaven, including all offices and powers in himself. To him, 
then, all commands are issued. Bring near for thee. For thy part 
bring near unto me. From among the sons of Israel, who are all in a 
larger sense, " unto me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (xix. 6). 
To be priests unto me. The term "jln's (Kohen) is sometimes applied 
to a civil officer, bearing the same relation to the king that the priest 
does to the King of kings (2 Sam. viii. 18, xx. 26 ; 1 Kings, iv. 8 ; 
1 Chron. xviii. 17). Hence it originally means a mediator, advocate, 
or intercessor appointed by the sovereign. The element of sin in the 
case of man involves the office of expiation in an efficacious mediator, 
and this is the priest, strictly so called. 2. Holy garments. Holy because 
divinely prescribed, and having a holy significance. They figured the 
righteousness which is the outward garb of a soul loyal to God. For 
glory and for beauty. Glory is the outshining of intrinsic excellence. 
Beauty is that pleasing characteristic which distinguishes the glorious 
from the shameful. For evil has its sensible outgoing of shame and 
ugliness. The inward cannot but have its corresponding outward show 
to an all-penetrating eye. The highest of all excellence is moral recti- 
tude, the glory and beauty of which are shadowed forth by the priestly 
garments. 3. The wise of heart. The heart is the term for the whole 
mental faculties in the metaphorical usage of Hebrew speech. The 
spirit of wisdom here is that pre-eminent mechanical skill which is 
competent to conceive and realize the design in hand. 4, 5. Six parts 
of the sacerdotal attire are here enumerated, three of which are peculiar 
to the high priest — the breastplate, the ephod, and the robe. The 
other three are common with him to the other priests — the chequered 
coat, the mitre, and the girdle, with this difference, that in place of the 
mitre, the common priest has the bonnet or turban (vs. 40). The 
number three is conspicuous here, as in the structure of the tabernacle. 
The doubling of this number in the high priest's attire indicates his 
pre-eminence in priestly rank. The materials of which they are to 
40 



314 THE EPHOD. 

consist are the same that were used in making the inner curtains of 
the sanctuary. 

6-14. The ephod. The materials and workmanship of the ephod 
and the curtains of the mishkan are the same, with the exception of the 
cherubim. 7, 8. A patient consideration of the description of the ephod 
leads to the conclusion that it was a shoulder-piece (i-nrw^ Sept.) or 
single lappet covering the back and reaching under the arm. This was 
kept in its place by two contrivances : First, two shoulder-straps extend- 
ing from the upper part behind were attached to the side pieces under 
the arms that came out in front immediately above the waistband: 
Secondly, the belt along the lower part of the ephod went round the 
waist, and so fastened it on. The Rabbins, indeed, and many commen- 
tators after them, hold that there were two lappets, each a cubit in 
length, one in front and one behind, connected by two shoulder-straps. 
But this is against the text, and against Josephus, who expressly states 
that the ephod left the breast uncovered (Antiq. iii. 7, 5). The lappet, 
straps, and belt were all of the same materials, and apparently of the 
same piece. The gold was beaten into thin plates, and cut into wires, 
in order to be interwoven with the blue, and purple, and scarlet, and 
fine linen (xxxix. 3). 9-12. Two onyx stones are to be set in ouches 
of gold on the shoulders of the ephod. The names of the sons of Israel 
are to be engraven, six on each stone, according to their birth. The 
names of the elder six sons, according to Josephus, were on the right 
shoulder, and those of the other six on the left. The probable arrange- 
ment is, Reuben, Simon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali ; Gad, Asher, 
Issakar, Zebulun, Joseph, Benjamin. These stones are to be stones 
of memorial for the sons of Israel before the Lord. The engraven names, 
like all writings, perpetuate the remembrance of the persons or things 
named. This, therefore, intimates that the descendants of Israel are 
on the memory of the high priest when he appears before the Lord. 
And the direction concerning these names indicates that in all this the 
God of mercy has Israel in perpetual remembrance. The office of the 
high priest has a twofold aspect, as he is the plenipotentiary of heaven 
to man, and as he is the propitiator of heaven for man. The badge of 
official authority was carried on the shoulder. Hence the ephod with 
its onyx stones shadows forth, on the one hand, the authority of the 
high priest as appointed of God to his high office. On the other hand, 



EXODUS XXVIIL 10-30. 315 

the bearing of the names on the shoulder indicates the propitiatory- 
power of the high priest's office. The shoulder is the seat of bearing 
power. And bearing the names of the sons of Israel is a forcible 
Hebrew symbol for saving them by an interposition, which prevails in 
virtue of a proper atonement. By a familiar expansion of the figures, 
the high priest appears as the shepherd (Gen. xlix. 24) who bears the 
lambs on his shoulders. He thus becomes the significant type of the 
great High Priest, whose everlasting arms are underneath his people. 
The onyx stones are two, simply because the shoulders are two on 
which the people are borne. The names are in a group upon these 
stones, to indicate that the one atonement is made for the whole body 
of the faithful. 

13, 14. These two verses stand by themselves in the original text, 
and form the transition from the description of the ephod to that of the 
breastplate. The ouches of gold seem to be those in which the onyx 
stones are set. Attaching. The word n^sa is very obscure. The 
meaning, " twisted," now generally given to it, is implied in the 
following word. It appears to refer to the use made of the chains. 
They were formed not of rings, but of gold threads twisted in the 
manner of a cord. These are fastened on the ouches, and serve to 
suspend the breastpiece, and form a close connection between it and 
the onyx stones. 

15-30. The breastplate of judgment, Aoyeiov t^s /cpicrews (vs. 30) 
is not a plate strictly so called, but a piece of figured stuff like the 
ephod ; which, when doubled, formed a square of a span, or about 
nine inches each way. 17. Tliou shalt set it in settings of stone. The 
twelve stones were to be set in gold (vs. 20). The settings may have 
been separate, but it is much more likely that they were connected in 
a square frame of gold, which was attached to the variegated cloth of 
the breastplate, as the settings of the onyx stones to the shoulder-straps 
of the ephod. The names of the twelve sons of Israel were to be 
engraven on these stones. The probable equivalents of the Hebrew 
names of these stones are given in the version. It is of no importance 
to ascertain the precise nature of each stone, as the particular name 
engraven on each is not specified. It suffices to know that the char- 
acters of the tribes were as different as those of the stones. 22-25. 
The wreathen or twisted chains before mentioned in connection with 



316 THE BREASTPLATE. 

the ephod (vs. 15) are here introduced in their relation to the breast- 
plate. They are hooked on two rings attached to the upper corners 
of the breastplate, while their other ends are fastened, as already- 
stated, to the ouches on the shoulders of the ephod. 26-28. The 
breastplate, thus suspended, is to be kept in its place by a lace tying a 
ring on each of its two lower corners to a corresponding ring on each 
of the lower ends of the shoulder-straps above the belt of the ephod. 
26. The two rings of the breastplate are to be placed on the border of 
it, on the farther or lower side of the ephod, inward; that is, on the 
side next the ephod. 27. The two rings of the ephod are to match 
them underneath on the ends of the shoulder-straps, which are con- 
tinued down to the belt, in the front of it, on the borders of it which 
come under the arms to meet the breastpiece, which overlaps it, and 
covers the space left in front. Over against the joining thereof, the 
joining of the shoulder-strap with the side and with the belt of 
the ephod. 

29. The breastplate itself, filling up the space of a span on the 
breast between the two shoulder-straps, and attached thereto above 
and below, is to be regarded as the complement of the ephod. As the 
breastpiece was two spans or a cubit deep, so Josephus informs us (iii. 
7, 5) that the ephod was of the depth of a cubit, and so extended as 
far below the belt behind as the breastplate itself before. Being part 
of a common whole, they share in a common significance. The names 
on the breastplate, in common with those on the ephod, serve for a 
memorial of Israel before the Lord (vs. 12). As the heart, in its 
ethical sense, is the seat of intellectual and moral faculty, the breast- 
plate on the heart is the emblem of oracular and judicial utterance. 
Hence it is called the breastplate of judgment, and in the Sept. Xoydov 
T7j<s Kpi<T€co9, the oracle of judgment. In this respect the high priest 
appears as the authoritative and inspired spokesman of him who is the 
God of truth and the Judge of all the earth. On the other hand, the 
bearing of the names of the sons of Israel on his heart is a symbol of 
intercession, the second half of the priestly mediation for the children 
of God. As each name is now on a separate stone, so every individual 
believer in Him who has made the all-covering atonement has a special 
place in that all-prevailing intercession which is continually going on 
at the throne of grace. 



EXODUS XXVIII. 30. 317 

30. The Urim and the Tummim. And thou shall put into the 
breastplate. The breastpiece itself is a piece of elaborately finished 
cloth (vs. 15). The symmetrical set of precious stones mounted in 
gold, whether separate or in a common frame, had to be constructed 
apart, and then placed within the compass of (^x) the breastplate, and 
attached to it in the ordinary way. This is expressed, not before, but 
now, in the words above quoted. This being so, the Urim and Tummim 
are the twelve precious stones mounted in gold, which are now put in 
the breastplate. And they shall be upon Aaron's heart when he goeth 
in before the Lord. These significant stones shall be on the breast of 
the high priest when he goes in to intercede, or essays to consult the 
Lord for Israel or a son of Israel. 

And. Aaron shall bear the judgment of the sons of Israel upon his 
heart before the Lord continually. A judgment is a decision or sentence 
according to law or right. Now the right of those who are actually 
guilty, and therefore obnoxious to the penalty of the law, resides not 
in themselves, but in their high priest, who gives satisfaction for the 
offence, and fulfils the requirements of the law on their behalf. Hence 
Aaron is said to bear the judgment of the sons of Israel when he 
prosecutes their cause before the Lord on the merits of his official 
compliance with the law in their stead. And he is said to bear the 
judgment of the sons of Israel when the Urim and Tummim are upon 
his heart, simply because these words are a significant name for the 
set of precious stones on which their names are engraven. The precious 
stones, distinct from, yet bearing the names of, the sons of Israel, appear 
to stand for him who has been already described as " the Stone of 
Israel" (Gen. xlix. 24), or more precisely to point out certain of his 
leading qualities, either in their unity, as the onyx on the shoulder, or 
in their diversity, as the twelve stones on the breastplate. These 
qualities are expressed by the terms the Urim and the Tummim, the 
lights and the rights, rendered by the Sept. tyjv S^Xwo-lv kol tyjv dA.?j- 
6etav. Hence the importance of this highly significant emblem for 
determining the spiritual meaning of the breastplate. Now the two 
leading qualities of a precious stone are brilliance and hardness. For 
the latter some may incline to substitute perfection, purity, or freedom 
from any flaw. The stones of the breastplate, then, are naturally 
called the lights in respect of their brilliance, and the rights (per- 



318 THE URIM AND TUMMIM. 

fections or purities) in respect of their hardness (or perfection) . These 
two qualities in the stone represent the light and the right that are in 
the high priest for the enlightenment and the reconciliation of those 
who come to God by him. He exercises the functions of teaching and 
sacrificing, as the type and shadow of a greater than himself. The 
Lord above is the great Illuminator of the darkened soul by his 
quickening Spirit (Gen. i. 3, viii. 3, xii. 7, xlviii. 15), and at the same 
time the great Vindicator from the evil consequent on sin (Gen. xlviii. 
16) by a righteousness not then fully manifested to the infant church. 
The deep import of the Urim and the Tummim, however, already 
dawned upon the early believer, when he witnessed the high priest 
clothed with the divinely-instituted breastplate, making an offering on 
the altar, accepted by fire, for the sins of the people, and returning 
oracular answers from God to the reverent inquirer ; and when he felt 
within himself the new-born emotions of faith and repentance towards 
God, and of that peace of conscience which arises from the confidence 
that an atonement has been made and accepted on his behalf. It 
pleased the Lord to indicate the light and right which he vouchsafed 
to his people by the precious stones on the breastplate of the high 
priest ; but it was not his pleasure that these should reside in the stones 
as a charm in an amulet. Hence, though it was ordained that the 
high priest should be clothed in the ephod and breastplate when the 
Lord was consulted through him, yet the divine response was not 
always either withheld in the absence of the breastplate, or granted 
when it was present. The Lord had various ways of communicating 
knowledge to the high priest, by an audible voice, and by other means 
which we cannot precisely define. But we have no ground whatever 
for the fancy that he conveyed verbal messages to the high priest by 
illuminating or raising up certain letters on the stones. The four 
letters, n, rs, X, p, do not occur on the stones. And besides, no possible 
advantage can arise from this gratuitous conjecture, as there is no 
scarcity of possible ways in which the oracular response may have been 
given. Here it becomes us to observe the rational, intelligible, and 
open meaning of this most significant part of the sacerdotal attire. 
There is nothing concealed : no idolatrous, mystical, or magical object 
or image, such as the Teraphim (Spencer, Legg. Ritual, iii. 3, 2), 
or three ancient stones, one for the affirmative, one for the negative, 



EXODUS XXVin. 30-35. c^g 

and a third for neither (Michaelis, Mos. R. i. 52), or diamond dice 
(Ziillig) ; nothing like the golden figure of the Goddess of Truth 
(Thmei) worn by the chief judge of Egypt (Diod. Sic, i. 48, 75) ; but 
simply a series of precious stones worn openly on the breast, with the 
names of the twelve sons of Israel engraven in plain letters on them 
for a memorial. These are called Urim and Tummim, lights and 
rights, in reference to the high functions of prophetic revelation and 
priestly intercession which were exercised by the high priest for the 
benefit of the people. 

31-35. The robe of the ephod. This phrase implies that the robe 
belonged to the ephod; and hence the three pieces — the breastplate, the 
ephod, and the robe — were regarded as one whole. The robe is to be 
entirely of blue. It is a close-fitting garment, having an aperture for 
the head, and slits, we must understand, for the arms. It was without 
seam, being entirely woven, even to the hem or binding round the neck. 
It reached to the knee, being longer than the ephod, and shorter than 
the checkered coat. 33-35. Upon the skirt of it were to be pome- 
granates of blue, and purple, and crimson, alternating with bells of 
gold. Aaron is to wear this robe when he ministers ; and thus his 
sound shall be heard when he goeth into the holy place and when he 
cometh out, that he die not. This robe is a type of that which pre- 
serves from death. Now we know that disobedience is the cause of 
death, and of course obedience is the safeguard against it (Gen. xvi. 
17). The robe, then, is a symbol of that righteousness which is the 
only security of eternal life. Without this robe, then, the high priest 
may not appear in the presence of God, on pain of death. The sound 
manifests to Aaron and to all concerned that the mail of proof has 
been put on, and the dread of death is removed. It is not probable 
that the people in general were so near as to hear the tinkling of these 
bells, and therefore we cannot suppose that the actual hearing of the 
sound during the ministration of the high priest within the sanctuary 
was intended to convey any intimation to them. This view of the robe 
confirms the import of the ephod and breastplate that are connected 
with it. The conjoint indication of the threefold whole is, that the high 
priest is appointed by God to bear the sins of the people, to intercede 
on their behalf, to reveal to them the truth of God, and to appear in a 
perfect righteousness as their representative. 



320 THE H0LY CROWN. 

36-38. The crown of holiness (xxxix. 30). Before proceeding to 
the parts of the priestly attire which are common to all priests, the 
significant crown of holiness is to be added to what has gone before. 
This consists of a plate of pure gold, attached to the mitre by a lace of 
blue, so that it may rest on the forehead. On this plate is engraven 
the phrase, Holiness to the Lord. By the names of the sons of 
Israel on the precious stones Aaron was marked out as the represent- 
ative of the people. By the sentence on the diadem he is signalized 
as the representative of God. In him is typified that intrinsic holiness 
on account of which alone the people can be ' accepted. By this holi- 
ness alone can he be qualified to undertake the cause of the people, 
and so "bear the iniquity of their holy things," that they may be 
accepted before the Lord. It is notable that in the significance of the 
ephod and the breastplate the bearing of the people is mentioned, and 
in the explanation of the crown the bearing of their sins is brought 
forward. The reason of this seems to be that in the former case the 
power and wisdom of the mediator are regarded, in the latter his holi- 
ness is made prominent. It is also worthy of remark that in the ephod 
the priestly office is obvious, in the breastplate the prophetic comes 
mto view, and in the crown of holiness the kingly makes its appear- 
ance, while at the same time the priestly discloses itself throughout. 

39. In one verse the three pieces of dress that are common to all 
the priests are summarily described. The coat of linen is to be 
checkered or figured in the loom. It was worn above the shirt, pro- 
vided with sleeves, and reaching to the feet. It was probably an 
emblem of moral purity. The mitre was of the same material, and 
seems to have been wrapped round the head like a turban. On the 
front of it was attached the golden plate described in the previous 
verses. The bonnet was used by the ordinary priest in place of the 
mitre. The girdle was also of linen, embroidered with the needle. 
Josephus says that it was four fingers wide, wound twice round the body, 
and tied in front, the ends hanging down to the feet. Maimonides 
asserts that it was three fingers wide and thirty-two cubits long. It 
forms a very ornamental part of Eastern dress. 

40-43. The dress of the other priests consisted of coats, girdles, 
and bonnets. For glory and beauty (vs. 2). Garments of splendid 
appearance and pleasing to the eye become the incomparable dignity 



EXODUS XXIX. 321 

of the priestly office. 41. The chapter now closes, as it began, with 
directions to put these garments upon Aaron and his sons, to annoint 
them, to fill their hand, and sanctify them, that they may minister to 
the Lord in the priests' office. The filling of the hands is the placing 
of the prescribed sacrifices in their hands, in the offering of which they 
are not only sanctified for, but instituted into, their office. The Levit- 
ical priests had to offer for themselves, as they were but fallen men, 
like their fellow-worshippers, and therefore but types and shadows of 
a true and perfect priest to come. 42. The breeches are mentioned 
apart because they do not belong to the official dress of the priest, but 
are prescribed for the sake of decency. The organs of excretion are 
called the flesh of nakedness, because their exposure is the exposure 
of a defilement connected with decay and death, and indicative of that 
moral defilement which brought death into the world of mankind. 
These parts are to be specially concealed in those who are to be types 
of moral purity when they approach the tent of meeting or the altar. 
The " statute for ever " may be regarded as applying to the whole 
of the regulations concerning dress. 

Tradition records that the old garments of the priests were unrav- 
elled and made into wicks for the lamps at the feast of tabernacles. 



CHAP. XXIX.— THE CONSECRATION OF THE PRIESTS. 

24. StS^ln a wave-offering ; r. wave to and fro. 
27. rra*ntn a heave-offering ; r. be high. 

XXIX. 1. And this is the thing that thou shalt do unto 
them to hallow them to act as priests unto me : take one young 
bullock and two rams without blemish. 2. And unleavened 
bread, and unleavened cakes tempered with oil, and unleavened 
wafers anointed with oil ; of wheaten flour shalt thou make 
them. 3. And thou shalt put them into one basket, and 
bring them in the basket, with the bullock and the two rams. 
4. And Aaron and his sons thou shalt bring unto the door of 
41 



322 THE CONSECRATION OF THE PRIESTS. 

the tent of meeting ; and shall wash them with water. 5. 
And thou shalt take the garments, and clothe Aaron with the 
coat and the robe of the ephod and the ephod and the breast- 
plate ; and gird him with the belt of the ephod. 6. And thou 
shalt set the mitre upon his head, and put the holy crown 
upon the mitre. 7. And thou shalt take the anointing oil and 
pour it upon his head and anoint him. 8. And his sons thou 
shalt bring, and clothe them with coats. 9. And thou shalt 
gird them with girdles, Aaron and his sons, and bind on them 
bonnets : and the priestly office shall be theirs for a perpetual 
statute : and thou shalt fill the hand of Aaron and the hand 
of his sons. 10. And thou shalt bring the bullock before the 
tent of meeting ; and Aaron and his sons shall put their hands 
upon the head of the bullock. 11. And thou shalt kill the 
bullock before the Lord, at the door of the tent of meeting. 
12. And thou shalt take of the blood of the bullock and put it 
upon the horns of the altar with thy finger, and pour all the 
blood at the bottom of the altar. 13. And thou shalt take all 
the fat that covereth the inwards, and the caul above the liver, 
and the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, and burn 
them upon the altar. 14. And the flesh of the bullock, and 
his skin and his dung, shalt thou burn with fire without the 
camp : it is a sin offering. 15. And thou shalt take the one 
ram ; and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands upon the 
head of the ram. 16. And thou shalt slay the ram, and thou 
shalt take his blood and sprinkle upon the altar round about. 
17. And thou shalt cut the ram in pieces, and wash his 
inwards and his legs, and put them on his pieces and on his 
head. 18. And thou shalt burn the whole ram on the altar : 
it is a burnt-offering unto the Lord, a sweet savor, an offering 
by fire unto the Lord. 19. And thou shalt take the other 
ram ; and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands upon the 



EXODUS XXIX. 323 

head of the ram. 20. And thou shalt kill the ram and take 
of his blood, and put it upon the tip of the right ear of Aaron, 
and upon the tip of the right ear of his sons, and upon the 
thumb of their right hand and upon the great toe of their right 
foot ; and thou shalt sprinkle the blood upon the altar round 
about. 21. And thou shalt take of the blood that is upon the 
altar, and of the anointing oil, and sprinkle it upon Aaron 
and upon his garments, and upon his sons and upon his sons' 
garments with him ; and he shall be hallowed and his garments, 
and his sons and his sons' garments with him. 22. And thou 
shalt take of the ram the fat and the rump, and the fat that 
covereth the inwards, and the caul of the liver, and the two 
kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, and the right shoulder; 
for it is the ram of consecration. 23. And one loaf of bread 
and one cake of oiled bread and one wafer, out of the basket 
of unleavened bread that is before the Lord. 24. And thou 
shalt put all in the hands of Aaron and in the hands of his 
sons ; and thou shalt wave them for a wave-offering before the 
Lord. 25. And thou shalt take them out of their hands, and 
burn them upon the altar for a burnt-offering, for a sweet 
savor before the Lord : it is an offering by fire unto the Lord. 
26. And thou shalt take the breast of the ram of consecration 
which is Aaron's and wave it for a wave-offering before the 
Lord : and it shall be thy part. 27. And thou shalt hallow 
the breast of the wave-offering, and the shoulder of the heave- 
offering, which is waved and which is heaved up, of the ram 
of consecration, of that which is to Aaron and to his sons. 28. 
And it shall be Aaron's and his sons' by statute for ever from 
the sons of Israel ; for it is a heave-offering : and a heave- 
offering shall it be from the sons of Israel of the sacrifices of 
their peace-offerings, their heave-offering unto the Lord. 

29. And the holy garments of Aaron shall be for his sons 



324 THE CONSECRATION OF THE PRIESTS. 

after him, to annoint them therein and to fill their hands in 
them. 30. Seven days shall the priest after him of his sons 
put them on, when he cometh into the tent of meeting to min- 
ister in the sanctuary. 31. And thou shalt take the ram of 
consecration, and seethe his flesh in a holy place. 32. And 
Aaron and his sons shall eat the flesh of the ram, and the bread 
that is in the basket, at the door of the tent of meeting. 33. 
And they shall eat those things wherewith atonement was 
made, to fill their hands and hallow them : and a stranger 
shall not eat thereof, for they are holy. 34. And if there 
remain any of the flesh of consecration and of the bread until 
the morning, then thou shalt burn the remainder with fire : it 
shall not be eaten, for it is holy. 35. And thus shalt thou do 
unto Aaron and to his sons, according to all that I have com- 
manded thee : seven days shalt thou fill their hand. 36. And 
thou shalt offer every day a bullock of sin-offering for atone- 
ment: and thou shalt purge the altar, when thou makest 
atonement upon it, and thou shalt anoint it to hallow it. 37. 
Seven days shalt thou make atonement upon the altar, and 
hallow it : and the altar shall be most holy ; whatsoever 
toucheth the altar shall be holy. § 71. 

38. And this is that which thou shalt offer upon the altar ; 
two lambs of the first year day by day continually. 39. The 
one lamb thou shalt offer in the morning and the other lamb 
thou shalt offer between the evenings. 40. And a tenth deal 
of flour mingled with the fourth of a hin of beaten oil, and for 
a drink-offering the fourth of a hin of wine for the one lamb. 
41. And the other lamb thou shalt offer between the evenings, 
and shalt do thereto according to the meat-offering of the 
morning and according to the drink-offering thereof, for a 
sweet savor, an offering by fire unto the Lord. 42. A contin- 
ual burnt-offering throughout your generations at the door of 



EXODUS XXIX. 1-28. 325 

the tent of meeting before the Lord, where I will meet you to 
speak there unto thee. 43. And there I will meet with the 
sons of Israel ; and it shall be hallowed by my glory. 44. 
And I will hallow the tent of meeting and the altar : and 
Aaron and his sons will I hallow to act as priests to me. 45. 
And I will dwell among the sons of Israel and will be their 
God. 46. And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, 
that brought them forth out of the land of Misraim, that I 
might dwell among them : I am the Lord their God. ^f 44. 

Having given specific directions concerning the official attire of the 
priests, the sacred writer proceeds to settle the mode of their conse- 
cration or solemn induction into office. 

1—28. The form of consecration. In this solemn process Moses, by 
special appointment of heaven, is to act the part of priest and conse- 
crator, and so lay the foundation of the Aaronic priesthood. To 
consecrate the priests is to hallow them to act as priests unto the Lord. 
It consists of three chief parts: (1) anointing them; (2) making 
atonement for them by sacrifice ; (3) causing them to perform a part 
of their office, in earnest and in token of the performance of the whole 
thenceforward with full authority. All this is preceded by three pre- 
liminary arrangments. 1-3. First, the bringing forward of the articles 
for sacrifice. The offering consists in its fullest form of three parts — 
the animal or proper sacrifice, in which the blood that makes atonement 
was shed, the meat-offering, and the drink-offering. In these two the 
thanksgiving and self-devotion of the offerer are jointly expressed; 
and hence the meat-offering only is sometimes employed, as in the 
present instance, to denote this state of mind. The three animals for 
sacrifice are a young bullock and two rams. Without blemish. This 
outward freedom from fault is symbolic of that intrinsic integrity or 
perfection which must belong to the real sacrifice for sin. Three kinds 
of bread made of wheaten flour are employed for the meat-offering — 
bread baked in the usual manner ; cakes mingled with oil, a kind of 
short bread, perforated, as its name indicates; and wafers with oil 
spread upon them. These indicate the fulness and variety of the 
feelings and duties acknowledged. They are all unleavened, in token 



326 THE CONSECRATION OF THE PRIESTS. 

of the sincerity of the worshipper. They are put into one basket as 
being one offering, and are brought forward with the bullock and 
the rams. 

The second preliminary is the bringing forward of Aaron and his 
sons, the parties to be set apart for office. Unto the door of the tent oj 
meeting. The tent has been already described (xxvi. 7-15). It was 
stretched over the tabernacle. It is called the tent of meeting, because 
it is the appointed place of meeting with God on the part of the high 
priest, and also on that of every stated assembly of the people on 
solemn occasions (vs. 42, 43 ; see on xii. 3). At the door of the tent 
means in a circle, the circumference of which touches the door, be the 
same more or less, according to the number constituting the meeting. 
It is obvious that a door ten cubits wide and a gate to the court of 
twenty cubits will allow a wide scope for the phrase at the door of the 
tent of meeting. And shalt wash them with water. At the time when 
this direction would be carried into execution the laver (xxx. 17-21) 
would have been constructed, and placed between the altar and the 
door of the tent (xl. 11, 12), say twenty-five feet from each. Hence 
Aaron and his sons were at the door of the tent of meeting when they 
were twenty -five feet from the entrance. The washing with water is 
one of the figures for personal cleansing or sanctification, while the 
sprinkling with blood shed at the altar was typical of legal cleansing 
or justification. 

5, 6. The investiture is the third preliminary. The coat is first 
put on over the shirt, then the robe, then the ephod and breastplate, 
with the belt of the ephod, and lastly the mitre, with the crown of 
holiness, on the head. We have already seen the typical significance 
of the articles of dress. Aaron being now present in his official attire, 
and accompanied with the offerings, the consecration or solemn ordi- 
nation is to ^take place. 

7. The first part of the proper ordination is the anointing. The 
composition of the anointing oil is afterwards prescribed (xxx. 22-25). 
The mode of application is pouring upon the head. He thus becomes 
a mashiach, a representative of the great Messiah. The anointing 
denotes qualification for office by the enlightening and sanctifying ope- 
ration of the Spirit of the Lord. 

8, 9. The sons of Aaron are now brought forward. Their investiture 



EXODUS XXIX. 1-18. 327 

is summed up in the direction to clothe them with coats. And then 
girdles are put on Aaron and his sons. It appears from this that the 
girdle was put over the belt of the ephod. The bonnets are bound on 
their heads, and must therefore be furnished with ties for this purpose. 
The priestly office shall be theirs for a perpetual statute. The priest- 
hood, in its virtue and effect, is absolutely perpetual. In its present 
form, it lasts as long as the Levitical economy. And thou shalt fill the 
hand. After the qualification comes naturally the institution, described 
as the filling of the hands with the instruments of office, that they may 
be used in some initial service. But in proceeding to this we meet 
with the propitiation or atoning sacrifice, by which they become recti 
in curia, right in point of law. 

10-28. The second part is the removal of legal disqualification by a 
series of sacrifices. The first is the sin-offering (vs. 10-14). Here 
is the direct recognition of sin in the intended officials, and therefore 
of the need of an atonement. The bullock is to be brought before the 
tent of meeting. Aaron and his sons are to put their hands on its 
head, in token that their sins are laid on it. This symbolic action 
takes place in all the offerings (vs. 15, 19). Moses is to slay the 
animal in the presence of the Lord. He is to sprinkle of the blood 
upon the horns of the altar, and pour the rest at its base. It is the 
blood, which is the life, that makes atonement. All the fat covering 
the inwards, the caul or midriff, the kidneys and their fat, are to be 
burnt upon the altar. The fat is the best, and this is to be consumed 
on the altar, as a satisfaction to justice beyond the mere privation of 
life. The remainder of the sin-offering is to be carried without the 
camp, as an unclean thing, and there consumed with fire, to indicate 
that that in which sin resides must be given over to destruction. Such 
is the awful, yet hopeful significance of the sin-offering. 

15-18. Next is the burnt-offering. The victim is in this case wholly 
burnt on the altar, to denote that a full propitiation is to be made for 
guilt. The blood of the one ram is to be sprinkled on the altar round 
about. Its body is then to be cut in pieces, perhaps into quarters, the 
inwards and legs to be washed, and laid upon the pieces and the head 
on the altar. The burnt-offering is as old as Noah's day (Gen. viii. 
20). The offering of the whole victim on the altar gives prominence 
to the idea of a complete substitution of one for another. It is a sweet 



328 THE CONSECRATION OF THE PRIESTS. 

savor, because it scents the air with the flavor of savory meat, and 
thereby vividly expresses how pleasing to the Almighty is the satis- 
faction to justice which opens the way to remission and restoration. 
It is an offering hy fire, because this brings to view the utter destruc- 
tion that awaits everything tainted with sin 

19-28. The third is the ram of consecration. Touching the body 
with the blood figures the application of that which expiates to the 
person purged from guilt. The ear is the organ of hearing, and 
therefore understanding and willing. The hands and the feet are the 
two great organs of nearer and more distant outward act. All these 
channels of true obedience needed propitiation. The sprinkling of 
the blood upon the altar noted to whom the expiation was made. 21. 
This was followed by a remarkable sprinkling of the persons and 
garments of the priests with both the blood upon the altar and the 
anointing oil, to symbolize at the same time the outward and legal 
and the inward and moral purification which was essential to the 
priestly office. 

22-25. The filling of the hands here begins. This simple but sig- 
nificant act is the third and crowning part of the induction of the 
priests into office. The fat and fatty parts of the ram, with one of 
each kind of cakes in the basket, are taken by Moses. The rump. 
This is the tail of the sheep, which in the broad-tailed species often 
weighed twenty pounds, consisting chiefly of fat, and was so valuable 
that a little cart was sometimes placed under it to preserve the fat, 
and relieve the animal. 24. All these are to be put in the hands of 
Aaron and his sons. From a comparison of the present passage with 
others in the trial of jealousy and the institute of the Nazarite (Num. 
v. 18, vi. 19), it appears that to put an offering into the hands of the 
offerer is to cause him thereby to take a part in the offering and in all 
its consequences. The significance of this taking in hand depends on 
the nature of the offering in question. Here it is the ram filling the 
hand (vs. 22). Aaron and his sons, then, here take the first step in 
offering, and are thereby initiated in the priestly office. But Moses is 
further directed to wave them for a wave-offering, while they are in 
the hands of the priests. This seems to be accomplished by Moses 
placing his hands beneath those of the priests, and conveying to them 
9, motion to and fro. Waving is explained by Maimonides and Rashi 



EXODUS XXIX. 22-28. 329 

to be a going and coming ; that is, a going towards the altar in token 
of dedication to the Lord, and a coming again towards the priest in 
token of transference to the priest as his share. This, however, does 
not suit the present case, in which the things waved are afterwards 
consumed on the altar. Later rabbins describe it as a movement 
towards the four quarters of heaven, to denote a consecration to the 
omnipresent God. But the horizontal movement probably indicates 
equality of rank, while heaving, a vertical movement, points to superi- 
ority and inferiority of rank. On this supposition, while either move- 
ment may denote an active part in the sacred service, waving may 
shadow forth the communion of the worshippers with one another, and 
heaving the communion of the worshipper with the Being worshipped. 
In the present case, the waving will indicate the communion of Aaron 
and his sons with Moses in the act of sacrifice. After the waving 
Moses is to take the things waved out of their hands and burn them 
upon the altar. As the ram is here parenthetically called " the ram 
of filling " of the hand, it is manifest that this is the first act of that 
official initiation which is continued through the seven days of conse- 
cration (vs. 35). 

26-28. The part of the sacrifice usually assigned to the priest. The 
first victim offered on this occasion is a sin-offering, the second a burnt- 
offering. After sin has been expiated, and complete satisfaction made, 
reconciliation and communion with God naturally follow. Hence the 
third victim, the ram of consecration, is of. the nature of a peace-offering, 
in which the worshipper, still acknowledging his need of atonement, 
yet advances to the end of all propitiation — peace with God, commu- 
nion with him, and all the joy of salvation. Hence the peace-offering 
included a feast upon a sacrifice, shadowing forth the communion of the 
worshippers with God. The priests were partakers in this communion ; 
and accordingly the wave-breast was assigned to them, and the heave- 
shoulder to him who officiated on the occasion (Lev. vii. 32-34). Here 
then, the breast of the ram of consecration is assigned to Moses, who 
for the present sums up the whole priesthood in himself. He is to 
w T ave it for a wave-offering, in token of his communion with the offerers 
in the blessings of peace and privilege. 27. He is to hallow, or 
S'jt apart to a sacred use, the shoulder of the heave-offering. The 
heave-shoulder was to be the share of him who transacted the deed of 
42 



330 THE CONSECRATION OF THE PRIESTS. 

atonement and fellowship with God, in offering up the fat of the peace- 
offering unto the Lord (Lev. vii. 33). It was taken or heaved up in 
token of its being offered to God, by whom it is assigned to his repre- 
sentative among men. 28. This is the heave-offering out of the 
peace-offerings of the sons of Israel, by a perpetual statute (xxv. 2). 

29-37. Additional directions concerning the ordination of the high 
priest. The successor of Aaron shall put on the official dress of his 
father at his consecration, and wear it during the seven days of 
institution. 31-34. The solemn feast of the consecration. The flesh 
of the ram of consecration is to be seethed in a holy place, namely in 
some part of the court of the tabernacle. Aaron and his sons are then 
to eat it, with the bread in the basket, at the door of the tent of meeting. 
These are the remainder of the things wherewith atonement was made 
to Jill their hands, and set them apart for their sacred service. They 
are therefore holy, and to be used only by the priests, who are holy. 
For the same reason, any part that remains till the morning is to be 
consumed with fire. 35-37. The filling of their hand is to continue 
seven days. Seven is the number of sacredness, and is therefore con- 
nected with this most holy transaction. Nothing can transcend the 
moment of that which typifies the atonement between erring man and 
his Maker. Every day a bullock of sin-offering for atonement is to 
ascend the altar, which is to be itself purged thereby. It is also to be 
anointed, and thus completely hallowed. Whatsoever toucheth the altar 
shall be holy. This is capable of two meanings. He that is to touch 
the altar must be holy. Or that which in the way of offering toucheth 
the altar, which is not only the medium of propitiation, but is now 
made most holy, becomes thereby holy, as the altar sanctifies the gift 
(Matt, xxiii. 19). Both are true; but the latter seems most in keeping 
with the context here and in xxx. 29. 

38-46. The continual burnt-offering, and the resulting communion 
of God with his people. TThen the order of the priesthood has been 
instituted the daily sacrifice can be celebrated. Two lambs of the first 
year, the one in the morning, the other between the evenings (xii. 6). 
40, 41. The meat-offering is to be the tenth of an ephah of flour 
mingled with the fourth of a hin of beaten oil. The omer, or tenth of 
the ephah, was above three pints, or the daily allowance of one person. 
A handful of the flour and oil was offered on the altar, and the re- 



EXODUS xxx. 331 

mainder fell to the priest (Lev. ii. 2, 3). The fourth of a hin, about 
one pint (xh. 36). The drink-offering is to be the fourth of a hin of 
wine. It was poured out about the altar in the holy place (Num. 
xxviii. 7 ; Joseph. Antiq. iii. 9, 4). 

42-46. The continual burnt-offering is to be presented at the door 
of the tent of meeting. The altar was probably thirty -three and a third 
cubits, or about fifty feet from the door. The tent of meeting is so 
called, because there the Lord will meet with Moses to speak with him. 
After the sacrifice of propitiation comes the reconciliation and com- 
munion with God, which is here simply and beautifully expressed by 
his meeting and conversing with Moses, the representative of the people. 
43. The intercourse is extended to the sons of Israel, of course through 
the high priest. The place of meeting is to be hallowed by the glory 
of the Divine presence (vs. 44). The tent of meeting, the altar, and 
the priests, are to partake alike of this sacred character. 45, 46. God 
will dwell among them and be their God, and by all their past experi- 
ence shall the people know that he is the Lord their God, the self- 
existent Author of all being, who is Eternal and Almighty, and who 
has deigned to have mercy on them, and adopt them to be his people ; 
and in pursuance of this gracious determination has brought them forth 
out of the land of Mizraim, that he might dwell among them. To this 
glad announcement of his grace, he sets the seal of promise and 
assurance by adding, I am the Lord their God. These specifications 
of the tabernacle service are no mere dry detail, but a record of 
heavenly life and promise. 



CHAP. XXX. — THE REMAINING ARTICLES FOR THE TABERNACLE. 

23. "its Myrrh, an aromatic plant of Arabia. ii*ft "in flowing or 
liquid myrrh; r. flow, liosp KtwdfjuD/jLov, Cinnamon is of the best 
quality in Ceylon ; r. perhaps iijjjj reed. H3£ /caAc^uos grows in Arabia 
and India. 

24. rrcp of the same class with ns^p cassia ; r. split. 

34. t)B3 araKTi], a gum spontaneously distilling from the myrrh plant. 
Others take it to be storax, a plant growing in Syria, Arabia, and other 
countries, which yields a fragrant gum ; r. drop, nbnu 6w£, onycha, 



332 REMAINING ARTICLES FOR THE TABERNACLE. 

the crustaceous covering of the shells of the trochus and conus ; r. 
scrape off. Frtsbn ^aA/Javry, the gum of the stagonitis growing in 
Arabia, Syria, and Abyssinia ; r. fat or milky, rahb \ij3avos, frankin- 
cense, the native place of which is Arabia Felix ; r. be white. 

XXX. 1. And thou shalt make an altar to burn incense 
upon ; of shittah wood shalt thou make it. 2. A cubit shall 
be the length thereof, and a cubit the breadth thereof: square 
shall it be; and two cubits shall be the height thereof: its 
horns shall be of the same. 3. And thou shalt overlay it with 
pure gold, its top, and its sides round about, and its horns : 
and thou shalt make for it a crown of gold around about. 4. 
And two golden rings shalt thou make for it under the crown 
of it on the two flanks thereof; on the two sides of it shalt 
thou make them : and they shall be places for the staves to 
bear it withal. 5. And thou shalt make the staves of shittah- 
wood, and overlay them with gold. 6. And thou shalt set it 
before the vail that is by the ark of the testimony, before the 
mercy-seat that is over the testimony, where I will meet with 
thee. 7. And Aaron shall burn thereon incense of spices : 
every morning, when he dresseth the lamps, shall he burn it. 
8. And when Aaron setteth up the lamps between the evenings, 
he shall burn it : a perpetual incense before the Lord through- 
out your generations. 9. Ye shall burn upon it no strange 
incense, nor burnt-offering, nor meat-offering ; neither shall ye 
pour drink-offering thereon. 10. And Aaron shall make an 
atonement upon the horns of it once in a year ; with the blood 
of the sin-offering of atonement once in the year shall he make 
atonement upon it throughout your generations : it is most 
holy unto the Lord. 21. H" H If 45. 

11. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 12. When 
thou takest the sum of the sons of Israel who are numbered, 



exodus xxx. 333 

then shall they give each a ransom for his soul unto the Lord, 
when they are numbered ; and there shall be no plague among 
them when they are numbered. 13. This they shall give, 
every one that passeth among the numbered, half a shekel 
after the shekel of the sanctuary ; the shekel is twenty gerahs ; 
half a shekel is the offering unto the Lord. 14. Every one 
that passeth among the numbered, from twenty years old and 
above, shall give the offering unto the Lord. 15. The rich 
shall not give more and the poor shall not give less than half 
a shekel, when they give the offering unto the Lord to make 
atonement for their souls. 16. And thou shalt take the 
money of atonement from the sons of Israel, and shalt give it 
for the service of the tent of meeting ; and it shall be a memo- 
rial for the sons of Israel before the Lord to make atonement 
for your souls. ^[ 46. 

17. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 18. Thou 
shalt also make a laver of brass, and its stand of brass, to wash 
withal : and thou shalt set it between the tent of meeting and 
the altar : and thou shalt put water therein. 19. And Aaron 
and his sons shall wash thereout their hands and their feet. 

20. When they go into the tent of meeting, they shall wash 
with water, and shall not die : or when they come near to the 
altar to minister, to burn an offering by fire unto the Lord. 

21. So they shall wash their hands and their feet, and not die : 
and it shall be to them a statute for ever, to him and to his 
seed throughout their generations. ^[ 47. 

22. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 23. And thou 
take for thee principal spices, of pure myrrh five hundred 
shekels, and of sweet cinnamon half so much, two hundred 
and fifty, and of sweet calamus two hundred and fifty, 24. 
And of cassia five hundred, after the shekel of the sanctuary, 
and of olive oil a hin. 25. And thou shalt make it an oil of 



334 REMAINING ARTICLES FOR THE TABERNACLE. 

holy ointment, a perfume compounded after the art of the 
perfumer : it shall be a holy anointing oil. 26. And thou 
shalt anoint with it the tent of meeting and the ark of the 
testimony, 27. And the table and all its vessels, and the 
candlestick and its vessels, and the altar of incense, 28. And 
the altar of burnt-offering and all its vessels, and the laver and 
its base. 29. And thou shalt hallow them, and they shall be 
most holy : whatsoever toucheth them shall be holy. 30. And 
Aaron and his sons thou shalt anoint, and hallow them to act 
as priests unto me. 31. And thou shalt speak unto the sons 
of Israel, saying, This shall be a holy anointing oil unto me 
throughout your generations. 32. Upon man's flesh shall it 
not be poured ; nor shall ye make any like it in its proportion : 
holy is it, holy shall it be unto you. 33. Whosoever com- 
poundeth any like it, or whosoever putteth of it upon a 
stranger, shall even be cut off from his people. § 72. 

34. And the Lord said unto Moses, Take unto thee spices, 
stacte, and onycha, and galbanum ; spices with pure frankin- 
cense : part by part shall there be. 35. And thou shalt make 
it an incense, a perfume, the work of the perfumer, salted, 
pure, and holy. 36. And thou shalt beat of it fine, and put 
of it before the testimony in the tent of meeting where I will 
meet with thee : it shall be unto you most holy. 37. And the 
incense which thou shalt make in its proportion ye shall not 
make for yourselves ; it shall be for you holy unto the Lord. 
38. Whosoever shall make like unto it to smell thereto shall 
even be cut off from his people. 

We have already hinted at the order observed in this specification 
of the tabernacle and its appurtenances. The author of this remark- 
able document proceeds from God to man ; from the centre, the ark 
of the testimony and the holy of holies, to the circumference, the altar 



exodus xxx. 1-10. 335 

of sacrifice and the court (xxv.-xxvii). He next determines the official 
attire, mode of consecration, and stated functions of the priests (xxviii., 
xxix). And then in a closing chapter he returns with the high priest 
from man to God, from the altar of sacrifice to the altar of incense, 
adding certain things of essential moment that occur on this blessed 
return. The starting-point is the altar of propitiation, then the laver 
of purification, and lastly the altar of praise, including confession, ado- 
ration, praver, and thanksgiving. Parallel with the two latter are the 
oiatment of sanctification, with which all things are to be hallowed, and 
the incense of supplication, which is to be presented before the mercy- 
seat. The progress and regress here are the prophecy and the history 
of salvation. First God comes forth to man with the mighty purpose 
of mercy in his heart and on his lips for four thousand years. Then 
the great High Priest makes atonement, and returns to the Father to 
send forth the Spirit of sanctification, and to make intercession for all 
who accept his mediation. So the awakened sinner finds the atonement 
for sin and the cleansing of the heart to be on the way to the Father,. 
1—10. The altar of incense. It is called an altar, a place of slaugh- 
tering for sacrifice, though no such offering was to be made on it, tx> 
intimate that all acceptable worship or service is only through an 
atonement previously made. It therefore presupposes, and is itself 
a monument of, the altar of burnt-offering. To burn incense upon. 
Incense in regard to the priest is only the merit of obedience for 
another, and to burn it is to make intercession for that other. In 
regard to the general worshipper, the offering of incense symbolizes 
every act of prayer, thanksgiving, or obedience, which is accepted 
through the intercession of the high priest. For the propitiation has 
already been made on the altar of sacrifice, and the sanctification has 
been shadowed forth by the laver. And the redeemed and regenerate 
man, now filled with the spirit of adoption, loves to speak and to walk 
with his Heavenly Father. 1-5. The altar is made of the same wood 
as the other parts of the tabernacle. It is overlaid with gold, and so 
is in keeping with the table, and stands in close relation with the 
candlestick and the ark of the covenant. It is adorned with a crown 
of gold, like the table and the ark. It is furnished with rings and 
staves, with which it may be moved from place to place. 6. It is to 
be placed before the vail that hangs before the ark of the testimony, 



336 THE ALTAR OF INCENSE. 

before the mercy-seat, with which it stands in intimate correspondence 
of meaning. Both presuppose an atonement made and accepted ; and 
over the mercy-seat is the presence of God merciful and gracious, and 
at the altar of incense is the high priest presenting the ransomed people, 
that they and their service may be accepted, Hence the addition, 
where I will meet with thee. In accordance with this intimate connec- 
tion, the altar of incense was probably placed close to the vail. In 
this way the candlestick, the altar, and the table would stand at the 
middle points of the inner side of the holy place, and the altar would 
be in closest proximity with the mercy-seat. 7-10. Incense of spices 
is to be burned on it morning and evening continually. No strange 
incense, none but that prepared by divine appointment (vs. 34—38), no 
burnt-offering, meat-offering, or drink-offering is to be burnt on it. 
Once every year Aaron is to make atonement upon the horns of it by 
sprinkling upon it with his finger seven times the blood of the sin- 
offering of atonement, to cleanse it and to hallow it from the unclean- 
ness of the sons of Israel (Lev. xvi. 19). This was directed to be 
done also when a sin-offering was to be presented for the high priest 
or the congregation (Lev. iv. 7, 18). It is most holy unto the Lord. 
This character is ascribed to the inner sanctuary (xxvi. 33), to the 
altar of burnt-offering (xxix. 37), to all the furniture of the tabernacle 
when anointed (xxx. 29), to all the offerings that were appropriated 
to the priests, and to the place in which they were to be eaten (Num. 
xviii. 9, 10). In the first of these instances it distinguishes the most 
holy from the holy place : in the others it expresses emphatically the 
exclusive holiness of that which belongs to God. 

11-16.. A regulation is here introduced concerning those who are 
to be enrolled as the host of the Lord (Num. i. 3). They are to give 
each a ransom for his soul unto the Lord when they are numbered. 
Here is the constantly recurring intimation that all were guilty before 
God. They cannot, therefore, be received into his service as the host 
of the Lord without a ransom. A plague must fall on the unransomed 
soul that was enrolled in the sacred list. The ransom money is a 
bekah, or half shekel. This is directed to be after the shekel of the 
sanctuary. The standard is fixed at twenty gerahs. We have not the 
means of ascertaining the value of the coins before the captivity. But 
*he approximate value of the shekel was 2s. 3d. (xxi. 32). The shekel 



exodus xxx. 11-33. 337 

of the sanetuary may be one of fall weight in contrast with that of 
commerce, which may have been of less weight. "We have here the 
following table of coins or weights: 

Gerah, or heart. 

Beka (Gen. xxiv. 22), or half shekel, = 10 gerahs. 

Shekel, or weight, = 20 gerahs. 

Every one from twenty years old and upwards passed among the 
numbered or registered host, and paid the half shekel. The rich and 
the poor give alike, because their* souls are of equal value, and the 
beka is the money of atonement for each. The offering is to be for 
the service of the tent of meeting (xxxviii. 27-81). 

17-21. The laver was to be made of brass, and its stand of the same 
material (xxxviii. 8). Its place was between the altar and the door 
of the tabernacle. If the interval between the door of the tabernacle 
and the gate of the court (see onxxvii. 19) were fifty cubits, or seventy- 
five feet, the altar and the laver may have divided this into three equal 
spaces of twenty-five feet. The Talmud supposes the laver to have 
been placed a little south of the middle line of the court. This will 
depend very much on the degree of importance attached to the laver. 
If it be merely a means of cleanliness, it may be set aside. But if its 
use be a symbol of sanctification, it will stand in the same line with 
the altar. Its purpose is washing, that Aaron and his sons may wash 
thereout their hands and their feet. The phrase thereout indicates that 
water was taken out of the laver into a smaller vessel for washing. 
The washing itself indicates that the priests were unclean, not only by 
mingling with the people, but by their own inherent sinfulness. The 
feet and hands with which they go and minister are to be cleansed, 
lest they die. Death is the penalty of sin, and therefore this outward 
cleansing is an emblem of that inward purity which must characterize 
him who is to make atonement for the sins of the people. This 
cleansing is a perpetual statute. This is in keeping with its intrinsic 
importance as the symbol of sanctification. 

22-33. The holy anointing oil. This is to be composed of live 

ingredients : five hundred shekels of pure myrrh, two hundred and 

fifty of sweet cinnamon, two hundred and fifty of sweet calamus, and 

five hundred of cassia, and a hin, about three quarts, of olive oil. It 

43 



338 THE HOLY ANOINTING OIL. 

is said to be compounded after the art of the perfumer. It is probable, 
therefore, as the Rabbins suppose, that the three spices were soaked in 
water, and boiled, and their essence extracted and mingled with the 
myrrh and oil. 26-30. With the anointing oil are to be anointed the 
tent of meeting, the ark of the testimony, the table, the candlestick, 
and the altar of incense, the altar of burnt-offering, the laver, and all 
their appurtenances. Being thus anointed, they are hallowed, and are 
accounted most holy (vs. 10). Aaron and his sons are to be anointed 
and consecrated to their priestly office. 31-33. This is to be a standing 
oil for anointing, not to be used for common purposes, not to be imitated 
in ordinary compounds, on pain of excommunication (Gen. xvii. 14). 
The anointing oil is an impressive symbol of sanctifying grace. It is 
analogous to the water of the laver, which cleanses. The latter points 
to the quality required ; the former to the end contemplated. That 
which is dedicated to God must be cleansed from stain. 

34-38. The incense. This also contains five simples — stacte, onycha, 
galbanum, frankincense, and salt. Stacte is the natural dropping of 
some sweet-scented plant, probably the storax. Onycha is probably 
the operculum, claw, or lid of the shell of a strombus, or other fish, 
emitting a scent, which, if not agreeable in itself, enhances the sweet 
odor of the other ingredients combined with it. Galbanum is the gum 
of a species of ferula (/zerwTrtov Dioscor.) or stagonite (Pliny), of a sharp 
bitter taste, fitted to add to the strength and duration of the other 
components. Frankincense is the odoriferous resin of a plant that 
grew in Arabia Felix and India, which was frequently used in religious 
offerings. Pure, free from adulteration. Part by part shall there be, 
each prepared apart from the others, or an equal part of each shall enter 
into the compound. 35. An incense for burning on the golden altar. 
A perfume diffusing an agreeable fragrance. TJie work of the perfumer, 
prepared according to the rules of a well-known art. Salted, as every 
meat-offering was. Salt is the emblem of incorruptibility. Pure, free 
from foreign admixture. Holy, dedicated to the holy use for which its 
purity fits it. 36. Beat of it fine, reduce it to a powder, that it may 
burn freely. And put of it before the testimony, on the altar of incense, 
which stood close to the veil that separated the holy from the most holy 
place, containing the ark of the testimony. In the tent of meeting, 
where I will meet with thee. Where the Lord meets with the represent- 



exodus xxxi. 339 

ative of the people, there is the place of conference, and therefore of 
prayer, adoration, confession, and inquiry on the one hand; and on 
the other hand of hearing, granting, accepting, and answering. Incense 
is accordingly the emblem of prayer and praise. 37, 38. This incense 
is not to be applied to any ordinary use, or imitated, on pain of excision. 



CHAP. XXXI. — THE MASTER OF THE WORK. 

1. bxbsa Betsalel. This is usually explained, in the shadow of God. 
*VIK Uri, light. 

6. nx^nx Oholiab, tent-father, -rioinx Achisamak, help-brother. 
10. T^to separation, distinction, official distinction ; r. separate, escape, 



XXXI. 1. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 2. See, 
I have called by name Bezalel, son of Uri, son of Hur, of the 
tribe of Judah : 3. And filled him with the spirit of God, in 
wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all 
workmanship, 4. To devise designs ; to work in gold, in silver, 
and in brass, 5. And in cutting of stones for setting, and in 
carving of wood ; to work in all workmanship. 6. And I, behold 
I have given unto him Aholiab, son of Ahisamak, of the tribe 
of Dan ; and in the heart of every wise-hearted one I have put 
wisdom ; and they shall make all that I have commanded thee : 

7. The tent of meeting, and the ark of the testimony, and the 
mercy-seat that is thereupon, and all the vessels of the tent ; 

8. And the table and its vessels, and the pure candlestick and 
all its vessels, and the altar of incense, 9. And the altar of 
burnt-offering and all its vessels, and the laver and its stand ; 
10. And the garments of office, and the holy garments for 
Aaron the priest, and the garments of his sons to serve as 
priests ; 11. And the anointing oil, and the sweet incense for 
the holy place : according to all that I have commanded thee 
shall they do. IT 47. 



340 THE MASTER OF THE WORK. 

12. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 13. And thou 
speak unto the sons of Israel, saying, Verily my Sabbaths ye 
shall keep ; for it is a sign between me and you for your gener- 
ations to know that I am the Lord that hallo weth you. 14. 
And ye shall keep the Sabbath, for it is holy unto you : he 
that defileth it shall surely be put to death ; for whosoever 
doe tli any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among 
his people. 15. Six days shall work be done ; and in the 
seventh is a Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord : whosoever 
doeth any work on the Sabbath-day shall surely be put to 
death. 16. And the sons of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to 
observe the Sabbath in their generations for a perpetual cov- 
enant. 17. It is a sign between me and the sons of Israel for 
ever : for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on 
the seventh day he rested and was refreshed. § 74. 

18. And he gave unto Moses, when he made an end of 
speaking with him upon mount Sinai, the two tables of testi- 
mony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God. 

The seventh chapter completes the specifications by naming the 
chief workman, with his second, and assigning to him the execution of 
all the works. This is followed by an injunction concerning the Sab- 
bath ; and then the scene is closed by handing over to Moses the two 
tables of the law written with the finger of God. 

1-11. The calling of Bezalel. / have called by name, appointed to 
office by naming the man. Bezalel. The order of descent is Judah, 
Parez, Hezron, Kaleb, Hur, Uri, Bezalel (1 Chron. ii. 1-20). Hence 
Bezalel belongs to the seventh generation after Jacob, and it is evident 
that he was now at man's estate, and may have been i the father of a 
family. For Kaleb, his great grandfather, is at least three generations 
before Kaleb the son of Jephunneh, the companion of Joshua, and 
probably of the same generation with Bezalel. Hur, the son of Kaleb, 
belongs to the fourth generation from Judah, and is therefore parallel 
with Moses and Aaron, who are in the third from Levi. 3. Filled him 



EXODUS XXXI. 1-17. 341 

with the spirit of God. His natural powers are hereby exalted for 
the works he has to perform. Wisdom to devise, understanding to 
apprehend, knowledge to explain, and workmanship to make expert. 
4, 5. To devise designs, from a mere verbal explanation. To work in 
the various materials employed in the tabernacle. 6. A companion 
and deputy is provided in Aholiab of the tribe of Dan, whose qualifica- 
tions are described in xxxviii. 23. And all the wise-hearted men are 
required to take part in the work. 7—11. The various works to be 
executed are now enumerated. 10. And the garments of office. The 
phrase thus rendered occurs only in three other places (xxxv. 19, 
xxxix. 1, 41), in two of which it is followed by the words, " to minister 
in the sanctuary." It appears to denote, not the cloths for covering 
the furniture (Num. iv. 6-14), as they were not strictly for ministering 
in the sanctuary, nor the inner curtains of the sanctuary, as they are 
previously mentioned in xxxix. 40, but the special parts of official array 
worn by the high priest to distinguish him from the others. 

12-17. The keeping of the Sabbath is here reinforced, because it 
might be supposed that so holy a work as the construction of the 
tabernacle might supersede the weekly rest. Verily my Sabhaths ye 
shall keep. They are by no means to be remitted, even on this extra- 
ordinary occasion. It is a sign between me and you. As the Sabbath 
was a divine institution commemorative of that creation in which the 
progenitor of the human race came into being, the observance of it by 
any remnant of the human family was a token that, amidst the general 
apostasy, they had retained or returned to their allegiance to the God 
of their being. For your generations. The commemorative rest is to 
continue as long as the intelligent race whose origin it celebrates. To 
know that I am the Lord that halloweth you. The people called to his 
favor and hallowed to his service know themselves and are known by 
others to be his by the Sabbath which they receive, understand, and 
sacredly observe. 14, 15. The civil penalty of death, as well as the 
hierarchical one of excision from the people of God, is attached to its 
desecration. 16, 17. The perpetuity of its obligation, and the signifi- 
cance of its observance are then reiterated. In referring to its origin 
the sacred historian employs the remarkable expression, " on the seventh 
day he rested and was refreshed." The " refreshment " must be 
understood in a sense worthy of him who "fainteth not neither is 



342 THE ACT 0F APOSTASY. 

weary." It includes, at all events, the pure delight arising from the 
consciousness of a design accomplished, and from the contemplation of 
the intrinsic excellence of the work. 

18. At the end of the communication made to Moses, the two tables 
of stone on which were written the ten commandments by the finger 
of God. To receive these he was summoned to appear before the Lord 
on the mount (xxiv. 12). The two tables were, when placed side by 
side, somewhat less than two and a half cubits by one and a half, if 
they were to lie beside each other on the bottom of the ark (xxv. 10). 
If they were each a cubit square they might easily contain on the four 
surfaces which they present, the six hundred and twenty letters con- 
tained in the Decalogue, and could be readily carried by Moses. Of 
testimony. The ten words contain the testimony of the Lord regarding 
the relation of the people to him and their consequent obligations (xxv. 
16). Tables of stone. Stone was the native material for a monumental 
inscription. It was in constant use for the purpose among the ancients. 
Written with the finger of God. As these ten words were proclaimed 
by the voice, so they are here said to be written by the finger, of God. 
But as they heard on that dread occasion " the voice of words, but saw 
no similitude," so the engraving on stone implies no visible finger of 
God, but only the putting forth of his power for the production of an 
authentic and permanent copy of the moral law. 



XIV. THE FIRST BREACH OF THE COVENANT.— Ex. xxxii.-xxxiv. 
CHAP. XXXII. — THE ACT OF APOSTASY. 

XXXII. 1. And the people saw that Moses delayed to come 
down out of the mount, and the people gathered unto Aaron, 
and said unto him, Up, make us gods, who shall go before us : 
for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of 
Mizraim, we know not what is become of him. 2. And Aaron 
said unto them, Pluck off the gold rings which are in the ears 
of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them 
unto me. 3. And all the people plucked off the gold rings 



exodus xxxn. 343 

which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron. 4. 
And he took them from their hand, and formed it with a 
graving tool, and made it a molten calf: and they said, These 
be thy gods, Israel, who brought thee np out of the land of 
Mizraim. 5. And Aaron saw it, and built an altar before it : 
and Aaron proclaimed and said, A feast to the Lord to-morrow, 
6. And they arose early on the morrow, and offered burnt- 
offerings and brought peace-offerings : and the people sat down 
to eat and to drink, and rose up to play. ^[ 48. 

7. And the Lord spake unto Moses, Go, get thee down ; for 
thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Mizraim 
have done corruptly. 8. They have turned aside quickly out 
of the way which I have commanded them : they have made 
them a molten calf, and bowed down to it and sacrificed unto 
it, and said, These be thy gods, Israel, who have brought thee 
up out of the land of Mizraim. 9. And the Lord said unto 
Moses, I have seen this people, and behold it is a stiff-necked 
people. 10. And now let me alone, and my wrath shall wax 
hot against them, and I will consume them ; and I will make 
of thee a great nation. 11. And Moses besought the Lord his 
God, and said, Why, Lord, doth thy wrath wax hot against 
thy people, which thou hast brought out of the land of Mizraim 
with great power and with a mighty hand ? 12. Why should 
Mizraim speak, saying, For evil he has brought them out, to 
slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the 
face of the ground ? Turn from thy hot wrath, and relent from 
the evil against thy people. 13. Remember Abraham, Isaac, 
and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thyself, and 
spakest unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of 
heaven ; and all this land of which I have spoken will I give 
unto your seed, and they shall inherit it forever. 14. And the 
Lord relented from the evil which he had said he would do 
unto his people. ^f 49. 



344 THE ACT OF APOSTASY. 

15. And Moses turned and went down from the mount, and 
the two tables of the testimony in his hand : the tables were 
written on both their sides ; on this side and on that were they 
written. 16. And the tables were the work of God ; and the 
writing was the writing of God, graven on the tables. 17. 
And Joshua heard the voice of the people as they shouted ; 
and he said unto Moses, The voice of war is in the camp. 18. 
And he said, It is not the voice of the cry for mastery, nor the 
voice of the cry for weakness ; the voice of them that sing do I 
hear. 19. And it came to pass when he came nigh unto the 
camp, then he saw the calf and the dances, and Moses's anger 
waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake 
them beneath the mount. 20. And he took the calf which 
they had made, and burned it in the fire, and ground it to 
powder, and strawed it upon the water, and made the sons of 
Israel drink of it. 21. And Moses said unto Aaron, What hath 
this people done unto thee, that thou hast brought a great sin 
upon them. 22. And Aaron said, Let not my lord's anger 
wax hot ; thou knowest the people, that they are set on evil. 
23. And they said unto me, Make us gods, who shall go 
before us ; for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of 
the land of Mizraim, we know not what is become of him. 24. 
And I said unto them, Whosoever hath gold, pluck it off; and 
they gave it me : and I cast it into the fire, and this calf 
came out. 25. And Moses saw the people that they were broken 
loose, for Aaron had cast them loose, for a hissing among their 
adversaries. 26. And Moses stood in the gate of the camp, 
and said, Whoever is for the Lord, come unto me ; and all the 
sons of Levi gathered unto him. 27. And he said unto them, 
Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Put every man his sword 
on his thigh, pass and return from gate to gate in the camp, 
and slay every man his brother, and every man his friend, 



exodus xxxil 345 

and every man his neighbor. 28. And the sons of Levi did 
according to the word of Moses : and there fell of the people 
that day about three thousand men. 29. And Moses said, Fill 
your hand to-day unto the Lord, that every man may be upon 
his son and upon his brother, and he may bestow upon you 
to-day a blessing 

30. And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses said 
unto the people, Ye have sinned a great sin : and now I will 
go to the Lord ; mayhap I shall make an atonement for your 
sin. 31. And Moses returned unto the Lord, and said, Ah, 
this people have sinned a great sin, and made them gods of 

gold. 32. And now, if thou wilt forgive their sin ; and 

if not, blot me now out of thy book which thou hast written. 
33. And the Lord said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned 
against me, him will I blot out of my book. 34. And now go 
lead the people to the place of which I have spoken unto thee ; 
behold my angel shall go before thee : and in the day of my 
visitation I will visit their sin upon them. 35. And the Lord 
smote the people, because they made the calf which Aaron 
made. § 75. 

Moses had now been forty days, or little short of six weeks, absent 
from the people. This was to him a period of adoration, inquiry, and 
instruction, and to the people of patience and probation. The awful 
voice of the Lord proclaiming in articulate words the ten command- 
ments from the pillar of fire on Mount Sinai had struck upon their ears. 
They had been so awe-stricken with the scene that they besought their 
deader to hear himself the words of the Lord and communicate them 
to them, promising instant and unreserved obedience. The pillar of 
cloud and fire into which Moses had been received was still conspicuous 
on the mount. But still they had become familiar with the sublime 
spectacle, and the time of their leader's absence seemed long. The 
general mass of them at length gives way to impatience, and Aaron 
himself, yielding to their importunity, makes them a golden calf as a 
44 



346 THE GOLDEN CALF. 

sensible representation of the God whom they still so grossly misap- 
prehended. This was a direct violation of the second precept at least 
of that Decalogue which had received their voluntary assent under 
circumstanees of so great solemnity, though they seem still to have 
intended to acknowledge and adhere to the Lord their God. This 
untoward event warns us against the hasty conclusion that a whole 
people bowing before God in a moment of intense feeling have there 
and then passed from a fallen to a renewed state, rendered a unanimous 
homage to the God of mercy and salvation, learned the whole scheme 
of theological truth, or acquired the habit of intelligent and uniform 
obedience to the law of eternal rectitude. There has been in all an 
incipient intention of allegiance to the Lord of heaven, but only in 
some had this been the outgoing of a renewed heart, and only in a few 
has it been so strong as uniformly to resist the wayward impulses and 
lingering habits of the old nature. Even Aaron is carried away by 
the general movement. The few true hearts are weak and mute. This 
breach is well calculated to impress us with the fact that the true 
Saviour is yet to come, and that we are still in the time of types and 
shadows. 

1-6. The image worship. Moses delayed, literally, put the expectants 
to shame by his non-appearance, a word very expressive of the state 
of mind into which the people had got towards the end of the forty days. 
Make us gods. The plural form is here carried in the syntax, and is 
therefore retained in the translation, though the one great object of 
worship is understood, as when we use the phrase, " the powers above." 
The idol which Aaron forms is accordingly a single figure. Who shall 
go before us ? This implies an impatience of the unaccountable delay, 
which in their yet unsubdued dispositions they could not brook. They 
must away to that land of promise which presented in their imagination 
so bright a contrast to the bleak and barren wilderness in which they 
lay encamped. This Moses, with the wand and hand of power, had 
been to them a tangible proof of the divine presence, precluding the 
necessity of a visible symbol. But they know not what is become of 
him. He seems to have deserted them. At all events, he has been 
so long absent, that they seem to have lost confidence in him and respect 
for him. 2, 3. Aaron demands of them, as part of the material for 
making the idol, the rings of gold which were in their ears, apparently 



EXODUS XXXII. 1-14. 347 

to make them feel their personal responsibility fur the step which they 
required him to take. They hesitated not to comply. 4. He took the 
gold trinkets, formed it, the idol, with a graving tool, and made it a 
molten calf. The sacred historian takes no pleasure in this transaction, 
and therefore gives us only a brief and general account of it. It is 
probable that the idol was a piece of wood carved into shape, and then 
overlaid with the gold which was obtained by melting down the ear- 
rings ; and so it became a molten calf. The people accept this as the 
similitude of God, who brought them out of Egypt. The model after 
which it was formed was no doubt the bull (either Mnevis of Heliopolis, 
representing the sun, or Apis of Memphis, representing Osiris), wor- 
shipped, as the people were well aware, by the Egyptians. 5, 6. 
Aaron, seeing their disposition, proceeds to erect an altar and proclaim 
a feast to the Lord on the morrow. The intention is to worship the 
Lord, though in an unworthy manner. The next day finds them early 
engaged in bringing burnt-offerings and peace-offerings. Of the latter 
it was the custom to partake, and after the festal repast they rose up to 
play. This phrase includes the wanton license which they had been 
accustomed to witness in the abominable rites of the heathen. 

7-14. This religious revel had taken place on the fortieth day of 
Moses's abode on the mount. He had received the two tables from the 
Lord (xxxi. 18), and was therefore prepared to descend, when he was 
surprised with the order, " Go, get thee down, for thy people, which 
thou broughtest out of the land of Mizraim, have done corruptly." In 
the abhorrence which their idolatrous and licentious worship created, 
they are called the people of Moses, and their deliverance is ascribed 
to him. The crime they had committed is then briefly and emphati- 
cally described. 9, 10. After a pause, in which he has time to recover 
somewhat from his consternation of mind, the Lord calls upon Moses, 
who was no doubt preparing to make supplication on their behalf, to 
let him alone, that he may consume this stiff-necked people in the fire 
of his just wrath, and make of Moses a great nation. 11. This strong 
and natural expression of righteous indignation does not, however, 
forbid, but rather calls forth the beseeching expostulation of Moses. 
He urges three reasons why the Lord should forego the demands of 
justice in regard to the people. First, they were his own people, 
whom he had delivered from Egypt by great power; secondly, the 



348 MOSES INTERCEDES FOR THE PEOPLE. 

glory of his wisdom and goodness would be tarnished in Egypt ; and 
thirdly, his promises to their fathers would be neglected. Moses makes, 
and could make, no appeal to any mitigating circumstance in the people 
themselves. He rises, therefore, at once above all this to the purpose 
of God in bringing them out of Egypt, which was not to destroy, but 
to save, and that not themselves only, but by them the whole race 
ultimately ; then to the lesson which was to be read to Egypt, and 
which would be unread if Israel were destroyed ; and lastly, to the 
faith which was to be kept with the fathers who had received the 
promises. 14. At the intercession of Moses, the Lord relents. He 
by whom all events are foreseen, cannot be taken by surprise or waver 
in his purpose. His indignation at moral evil is simply the burning 
feeling of its intrinsic demerit, and of the requital which justice demands. 
His repentance is merely his relenting from the rigid enforcement of 
justice, in accordance with his determined purpose to dispense his 
mercy to returning penitents of the tempted and fallen race of man. 

15-29. After this agitating scene, Moses turns hastily to descend 
from the mount. It is carefully noted that the two tables of the testi- 
mony were in his hand ; their preciousness is indicated by the words 
of immutable truth which were inscribed on both sides of them ; their 
sacredness by the remembrance that both the forming of the tables 
and the writing upon them was the immediate work of God. 17, 18. 
Joshua has been waiting for Moses, apparently outside the cloud of the 
divine presence. He is therefore ignorant of what is going on in the 
camp. He supposes it at first to be the sound of war. After listening 
further, Moses remarks that it is not the cry of the conqueror or the 
conquered, but of those who are making merry. 19, 20. The scene 
which was presented when they drew nigh to the camp aroused the 
regretful indignation of Moses. He felt that the solemn covenant with 
God had been shamefully violated. He cast down the tables containing 
the holy and gracious conditions of this covenant, and broke them 
before their eyes (Deut. ix. 17). 

This act expressed with a terrible distinctness the consequence of 
their infatuated crime. He burned the calf, ground it to powder, and 
strowed it on the water, in the brook from which alone they were 
supplied with drink (Deut. ii. 21). The stock of the idol, being prob- 
ably of wood, was burned, and, with the gold, reduced to a powder. 



exodus xxxn. 15-29. 349 

It is not likely that the gold was calcined by a chemical process. The 
drinking of the water mingled with the ashes of their idol was well 
calculated to remind them both that an idol is nothing in the world, 
and that they must all reap the bitter fruits of their common infatua- 
tion. 21-24. Moses now expostulates with Aaron for his highly 
inexcusable part in this crime. What hath the people done unto thee ? 
What force had they put upon him ? What was the necessity under 
which he had acted ? Aaron's defence is that the people were set on 
evil, and that he yielded to their will. It is plain that he was guilty 
of a weak and timid compliance with what he knew to be wrong. 
And we are informed elsewhere that Moses made special intercession 
for him (Deut. ix. 20). 25-29. Moses now turns from Aaron to the 
people, whom he perceives to be cast loose from all right feeling and 
reverence for God, thrown into a state of reckless disorder and helpless 
anarchy, and exposed as an object of contempt to their adversaries. 
His sudden reappearance among them, his stern decisiveness, in marked 
contrast with the yielding feebleness of Aaron, the remembrance of 
the miracles which he was enabled to perform, the significant acts of 
breaking the tables of covenant and destroying the symbol of their 
guilt, had arrested their wild carousal and paralyzed their force of 
resistance. At this critical moment he summons to him all that are 
on the Lord's side, and commands them to gird on the sword, and, 
without respect of kindred, slay every man that stands out in his 
rebellion. The sons of Levi, moved, among other considerations, by a 
clearer insight and a deeper feeling of what is right, and it may be by 
their relationship to Moses, range themselves by his side, take the 
sword of execution, and three thousand of the people (doubtless the 
turbulent and rebellious) fall by their hands. 29. Fill your hand to- 
day unto the Lord. Take your part in that which is due to the Lord, 
that every man may be upon or against his nearest relative among the 
rebels against the Most High. In a moment of wide-spread treason 
against the Supreme Governor, to whom allegiance has been sworn, 
it behooves the few bold and loyal men to strike promptly and reso- 
lutely for the cause of truth and order. Such faithfulness in the day 
of treachery wins the blessing from that Sovereign whom there is no 
possibility of either deceiving or resisting. It need not seem strange 
that the Levites met with no effectual resistance in their stern vindi* 



350 MOSES RESUMES HIS INTERCESSION. 

cation of the law. A great number of the people must have disap- 
proved, though in silence, of the idolatrous proceeding. Many more 
were totally indifferent, though they suffered themselves to be led by 
the few turbulent and perverse spirits. All these would shrink away 
conscience-stricken before the eye, the hand, and the word of Moses. 
Only a few grovelling souls that lusted after the abominations of the 
idol-worship in Egypt would remain to fall under the swords of those 
whose ancestor was so prompt to avenge the adultery of Shekem 
(Gen. xxxiv. 25). 

30-35. Moses turns from the now trembling people with the promise 
that he would intercede for them with the Lord. It is true that the 
Lord had relented from his fierce wrath. But Moses had meanwhile 
witnessed the deplorable revolt of the people. And though instant 
perdition was stayed, yet he felt that they were not yet fully pardoned 
or altogether restored to favor. His mode of intercession is brief, but 
forcible. He confesses the enormity of their sin, and then says, And 
now, if thou wilt forgive their sin. This is an impassioned form of 
entreaty. It leaves the consequence unuttered, in the urgency and 
inexpressible earnestness of desire. We may imagine the unspoken 
issue to be, that Moses would count life a blessing. For he immedi- 
ately adds, And if not, blot me now out of thy book which thou hast 
written. He feels at the moment that life would be insupportable if 
his people were unforgiven. The book here spoken of is the book of 
life. It was even then the custom of every city in a literary commu- 
nity to keep a list of the burgesses. The Israelites were familiar with 
the custom of keeping a register of families (Gen. v. 1). The shoterim 
or " officers " were employed in keeping these and other registers (vs. 
6). Hence Moses uses a familiar figure in speaking of God's book 
(Ps. lxix. 29 ; Dan. xii. 1). 33, 34. The Lord directs Moses to go 
and lead the people to the land of promise. He promises that his 
angel shall go before him. The angel here spoken of is that mediating 
angel of whom we read in Gen. xiv. 7, and Ex. xxiii. 20, who possesses 
the attributes and exercises the prerogatives of the Most High. But 
at the same time he adds, In the day of my visitation I will visit 
their sin upon them. The fulness of their iniquity was not yet come, 
though it is foreseen. The intercessor has prevailed, but he has not 
yet heard the sentence of full remission. 35. No further account of 



EXODUS XXXHI. 351 

this plague or of its nature is given. They made the calj which 
Aaron made. Those who cause a thing to be made are chargeable 
with the making of it. 



CHAP. XXXIII.— THE INTERCESSION OF MOSES. 

XXXIII. 1. And the Lord spake unto Moses, depart and go 
up hence, thou and the people which thou hast brought out of 
the land of Mizraim, unto the land which I sware unto Abra- 
ham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, Unto thy seed will I give it. 
2. And I will send an angel before thee, and I will drive out 
the Kenaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, 
the Hivite, and the Jebusite : 3. Unto a land flowing with 
milk and honey ; for I will not go up in the midst of thee, 
because thou art a stiff-necked people, lest I consume thee 
in the way. 4. And the people heard this evil saying, and 
mourned ; and no man put on his bravery. 5. And the Lord 
said unto Moses, say unto the sons of Israel, Ye are a stiff- 
necked people : in one moment, were I to go up in the midst 
of thee, I should destroy thee : and now put off thy bravery 
from thee, and I shall know what to do unto thee. 6. And 
the sons of Israel stripped off their bravery afar from the 
mount Horeb. 

7. And Moses took the tent and pitched it for him without 
the camp, afar off from the camp, and called it the tent of meet- 
ing : and it came to pass that every one that sought the Lord, 
went out unto the tent of meeting which was without the camp. 

8. And it came to pass that when Moses went out unto the 
tent all the people rose up, and stood every man at his tent 
door ; and they looked after Moses until he went into the tent. 

9. And it came to pass as Moses went into the tent the pillar 
of cloud came down, and stood at the door of the tent : and he 



352 THE INTERCESSION OF MOSES. 

spake with Moses. 10. And all the people saw the pillar of 
cloud stand at the tent door : and all the people arose and 
bowed down, every man in his tent door. 11. And the Lord 
spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his 
friend : and he returned to the camp, and his minister Joshua, 
son of Nun, a young man, moved not out of the tent. ^[ 50. 

12. And Moses said unto the Lord, Behold, thou sayest unto 
me, Bring up this people, and thou hast not let me know whom* 
thou wilt send with me : and thou hast said, I know thee by 
name, and thou hast also found grace in mine eyes. 13. And 
now, if now I have found grace in thine eyes, shew me now thy 
way, and let me know thee, that I may find grace in thine 
eyes ; and observe that this nation is thy people. 14. And he 
said, My presence shall go, and I will give thee rest. 15. And 
he said unto him, If thy presence go not, carry us not up hence. 
16. And wherein shall it be known indeed that I and thy 
people have found grace in thine eyes, if not in thy going with 
us ? and I and thy people shall be distinguished from all the 
people that is upon the face of the ground. ^[ 51. 

17. And the Lord said unto Moses, This thing also that thou 
hast spoken will I do ; for thou hast found grace in mine eyes, 
and I know thee by name. 18. And he said, Show me now 
thy glory. 19. And he said, I will make all my goodness to 
pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord 
before thee : and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, 
and show mercy to whom I will show mercy. 20. And he 
said, Thou canst not see my face ; for no man shall see me 
and live. 21. And the Lord said, Lo, there is a place by me, 
and thou shalt stand upon the rock. 22. And it shall come to 
pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift 
of the rock : and I will cover thee with my hand while I pass 
by. 23. And I will take away my hand, and thou shalt see 
my back ; but my face shall not be seen If 52. 



exodus xxxin. l-n. 353 

Moses receives a commission to conduct the people to the land 
destined for them, with the promise of the divine aid, but without the 
divine presence amidst them. He accordingly removes the tent where 
the Lord met him out of the camp. He entreats the Lord to go with 
him and shew him, his glory. 

1-6. The commission to Moses again refers to the people " whom 
thou hast brought up out of the land of Mizraim." The Lord does not 
yet choose to acknowledge them as his own. They have been separated 
by a new transgression, and they have not yet returned with penitence 
or borne any fruit meet for repentance. Nevertheless, his promise stands 
sure. He will send his angel (xxxii. 34) before them. But he will 
not go in the midst of them, as he had been hitherto doing and intended 
to do (xxv. 8), lest he should consume them in their perversity. 4—6. 
This unfavorable message affects the people with sorrow, and they begin 
to lay aside all gaiety in dress. While they are in this state of feeling 
the Lord sends a message to them by Moses requiring them to put off 
their bravery of apparel, that he may know what to do with them. 
This was a strong affirmation of their perversity. In one moment, were 
I to go up. If I were to go into the midst of thee, I must in that 
moment consume thee. But there is a hint of mercy in the follow- 
ing words sufficient to encourage them in their incipient repentance. 
Afar from the mount Horeb, retiring from the presence of the Lord 
to their tents. 

7-11. And Hoses took the tent. The tent here is not the sanctuary 
or sacred tent of the Lord, which was not yet constructed, nor any 
temporary dwelling of the Lord, as he only appeared hitherto in the 
pillar of cloud and fire, but simply the tent or pavilion of Moses, in 
which he officially abode. This he now pitched outside the camp at 
some distance, and called it the tent of meeting, because, like the 
tabernacle, it was the place where God met with him. The object of 
this removal was to maintain intercourse with the Lord, when he would 
no longer manifest himself amidst the people who had broken the 
covenant. Moses had not transgressed, and was still in fellowship 
with God. He will avail himself of this privilege to bring about a 
renewal of friendly relations between God and the people. The 
separation had also the effect of setting before the eyes of the people 
not only the continued fellowship of Moses with God, but also their 
45 



354 THE INTERCESSION OF MOSES. 

own present estrangement from him. And now any one who sought 
the Lord for counsel, judgment, or aid, went out to the tent of meeting. 

8. The people stood up with reverent interest to behold Moses going 
from the camp to the tent of meeting to discharge his official functions. 

9. When Moses was in the tent the pillar of cloud came down and 
stood at the tent door, to manifest in the most solemn manner that God 
was with Moses. The wondering people bowed down with devout 
reverence when they beheld the supernatural signs of the divine 
presence. 11. The Lord spake with Moses, not by a voice from heaven 
but in the pillar standing at his door, face to face, as a man speaketh 
with his friend. He beheld not the divine essence (vs. 20), but such 
a vision of his face as is possible for a man to behold and live. When 
Moses was absent from the tent, Joshua his minister took his place. 

12-16. The mind of Moses is in a state of anxious inquiry, and he 
now comes before the Lord to have all his pressing perplexities solved 
Behold. This is a matter of intense moment to me. Thou sayest unto 
me, Bring up this people. I feel the weight of this charge more than 
ever, in consequence of this breach of the newly-made and willingly- 
accepted covenant. This has interrupted the happy relation in which 
the people stood to thee. I do not yet fully comprehend the new 
relation in which they are to stand. (1.) Thou speakest of an angel 
who is to go before us. And thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt 
send with me. Who is this angel ? Let me have some personal knowl- 
edge of him, that my mind may be at ease. Tliou hast said, I know 
thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in mine eyes. Moses is 
personally known to God as one whom he has accepted and appointed 
to be the leader of his people. He therefore humbly prays to be 
informed how this angel stands to God and to himself. Much peace 
and comfort will result to him from this knowledge. (2.) The way in 
which this people are henceforth to be dealt with he desires to under- 
stand. They have been heedless and perverse. They may be so again. 
He wants to penetrate more thoroughly into the great principle on 
which their salvation rests with certainty amidst the uncertainty of 
their wills. Shew me thy way of salvation, of deliverance and guidance 
for this people to the promised end. And let me know thee. For 
all is in thee — the angel guide, the certain way. That I may find 
grace in thine eyes, present, constant, everlasting grace. (3.) Another 



exodus xxxm. 12-23. 355 

word of thine has perplexed me. Thou callest the people mine, whom 
I have brought up. But observe that this nation is thy people. That 
is the plain undeniable truth, far transcending my merely ministerial 
part in their redemption. I beseech thee to look at this, and acknowl- 
edge it. Such is this wondrous prayer of faith springing up from the 
heart of Moses. 

14-16. A single clear and cheering sentence encourages Moses. 
My presence shall go, I will give thee rest. My face or presence is of 
the same import as myself. Hence it is simply added, I will give thee 
rest. The angel, then, is the angel of his presence (Isa. lxiii. 9), in 
whom is his name (xxiii. 20), that is, the Lord himself in angelic office 
and presence. Moses seizes on the precious word. If thy presence go 
not, carry us not up hence. It is not a mere angel, but Jehovah, the 
angel of the covenant (Mai. iii. 1), whom he desires to have with him. 
This is the only incontestable evidence that they had found favor with 
God. I and thy people. He now associates himself with the people, 
and the people with God. The presence of the Lord distinguishes them 
from all the people on the whole earth. 

17-23. The Lord now fully concedes the earnest request of Moses. 
He will go with them. He acknowledges them to be his people. The 
only other thing that remained on the mind of Moses was the " way " 
of the Lord regarding mercy and truth, righteousness and peace. To 
show mercy and yet do justly ; to magnify grace and holiness at the 
same time ; to bestow a perpetuity of blessing on a people wavering 
now and again into disobedience, was a problem that seemed to task 
the highest intelligence, to transcend the ordinary ways of providence, 
and call into exercise some inner and higher reaches of the Eternal 
mind. Moved by a wish to do his duty with intelligence, Moses 
ardently desires some insight into this profound mystery, and he feels 
that it touches the very centre of the divine nature, and involves the 
sublimest manifestations of his glory. Hence his last and grandest 
petition. Show me now thy glory, is the fitting close to his prevailing 
intercession. It is also granted, as far as man is capable here of 
receiving such a boon. 19. All my goodness. The goodness of God, 
his moral character, is the perfection of his glory. The name of the 
Lord. The name is the manifest and revealed nature. The Lord is 
Jehovah, the Creator of all things, the Keeper of covenant, the Per- 



356 THE COVENANT RENEWED. 

former of promise. I will have been gracious to whom I will be gracious. 
Here is discriminating and determinate grace. It is discriminating ; 
some are taken and others left. It is determinate ; the chosen are 
kept from the evil forever. This sentence is reiterated in other words. 
It solves some of Moses's difficulties. Whatever may befall, a remnant 
will be saved. 20. Thou canst not see my face. This separate sentence 
is emphatic and essential. My face is my direct, immediate, intrinsic 
self. The essential power of God is irresistible ; the essential wisdom 
inscrutable to the creature. The essential holiness of the Almighty 
and All-wise is insupportable to that which is tainted with guilt. 
Hence man shall not see him and live. 21-23. My bach is my averted, 
mediate, extrinsic self, visible to man in my works, my word, and my 
personal manifestations to my people. The place near the Lord where 
Moses was to stand, the clift of the rock in which he was to be put, the 
hand which was to cover him while the Lord in his glory passed by, 
and to be taken away that he might see the Lord when his face was 
averted, are the simple elements of a real scene, in which the Lord 
conveyed to the sense and the reason of Moses the deep things of his 
glorious grace in a manner which was exactly adapted to the capacity 
of the inquirer. Whether the clift of the rock was the grotto under 
the ruined mosque on the top of Jebel Musa it is not worth while to 
inquire. 



CHAP. XXXIV.— THE COVENANT RENEWED. 

XXXIV. 1. And the Lord said unto Moses, Hew thee two 
tables of stone like the former: and I will write upon the 
tables the words that were on the former tables, which thou 
brakest. 2. And be ready in the morning : and come up in 
the morning unto Mount Sinai, and present thyself there to 
me on the top of the mount. 3. And no man shall come up 
with thee, nor let any man be seen in all the mount : nor let 
the flocks or herds feed before this mount. 4. And he hewed 
two tables of stone like the former, and Moses rose up early 
in the morning, and went up into mount Sinai, as the Lord 



EXODUS xxxiv. 357 

3ornmanded him : and he took in his hand the two tables 
of stone. 

5. And the Lord came down in the cloud, and stood with 
him there : and he proclaimed the name of the Lord. 6. And 
the Lord passed by before his face, and proclaimed, the Lord, 
the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abun- 
dant in mercy and truth : 7. Keeping mercy for thousands, 
forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin : and he will by 
no means acquit the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers 
upon the sons and upon the sons' sons, unto the third and to 
the fourth generation. 8. And Moses made haste, and bended 
towards the earth and bowed down. 9. And he said, If now I 
have found 1 grace in thine eyes, Lord, let the Lord now go 
in the midst of us : for it is a stiff-necked people ; and thou 
wilt pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine 
inheritance. 10. And he said, Lo, I make a covenant ; before 
all thy people I will do marvels, which have not been enacted 
in all the earth nor in all the nations : and all the people 
among which thou art shall see the work of the Lord ; for it is 
a terrible thing that I will do with thee. 

11. Observe thou that which I command thee this day : lo, I 
drive out before thee, the Amorite, and the Kenaanite, and the 
Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite. 
12. Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the 
inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be a snare 
in the midst of thee. 13. For ye shall destroy their altars, 
and break their pillars, and cut down their statues. 14. For 
thou shalt bow down to no other God : for the Lord, whose 
name is Jealous, is a jealous God. 15. Lest thou make a cov- 
enant with the inhabitant of the land, and they go a whoring 
after their gods, and sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, 
and thou eat of his sacrifice ; 16. And thou take of their 



358 THE COVENANT RENEWED. 

daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a whoring 
after their gods, and make thy sons go a whoring after their 
gods. 17. Molten gods thou shalt not make thee. 18. The 
feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep : seven days thou 
shalt eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee in the set 
time of the month Abib : for in the month Abib thou earnest 
out of Mizraim. 19. All that openeth the womb is mine ; and 
all thy cattle, the firstling of ox or sheep, that is a male. 20. 
And the firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb ; 
and if thou redeem it not, then shalt thou break its neck : all 
the first-born of thy sons thou shalt redeem, and none shall 
appear before me empty. 21. Six days thou shalt labor, and 
on the seventh day thou shalt rest : in ploughing and in reaping 
time thou shalt rest. 22. And thou shalt keep the feast of 
weeks, of the first fruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of 
ingathering at the turn of the year. 23. Three times in the 
year shall all your males appear before the Lord, the Lord 
God of Israel. 24. For I will dispossess the nations before 
thee, and enlarge thy border: and no man shall desire thy 
land, when thou goest up to appear before the Lord thy God 
three times in the year. 25. Thou shalt not offer the blood of thy 
sacrifice with leaven : and the sacrifice of the passover feast 
shall not be left unto the morning. 26. The first of the first- 
fruits of thy ground thou shalt bring unto the house of the 
Lord thy God: thou shalt not seethe a kid in its mother's 
milk. § 53. 

27. And the Lord said unto Moses, Write thou these words : 
for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with 
thee and with Israel. 28. And he was there with the Lord 
forty days and forty nights ; he ate not bread nor drank water : 
and he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the 
ten words. 



exodus xxxiv. 1-10. 359 

29. And it came to pass when Moses went down from Mount 
Sinai, that the two tables of testimony were in Moses's hand 
when he went down from the mount ; and Moses knew not 
that the skin of his face shone when he talked with him. 30. 
And Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw Moses, and lo, the 
skin of his face shone : and they were afraid to come nigh him. 

31. And Moses called them, and Aaron and all the princes in 
the assembly returned to him : and Moses talked with them. 

32. And afterward all the sons of Israel came nigh : and he 
commanded them all that the Lord had spoken with him in 
Mount Sinai. 33. And Moses ceased from speaking with 
them, and he put a vail upon his face. 34. And when Moses 
went in before the Lord to speak with him, he took the vail 
off, until he came out : and he came out and spake unto the 
sons of Israel that which he was commanded. 35. And the 
sons of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses's 
face shone : and Moses put the vail upon his face again, until 
he went in to speak with him. 

The order is now given to Moses to return to the mount, when the 
Lord proclaims himself the God of mercy and justice, and renews the 
covenant, with certain injunctions suitable to the occasion. 

1-4. Hew thee. The former tables were made by God himself. As 
they had been broken by Moses in the outburst of his righteous indig- 
nation against the idolatry of the people, the Lord directs him to 
prepare a second set of tables, on which he promises to write a second 
copy of the law. 3. And no man shall come up with thee. On the 
former occasion the elders, with Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, accompanied 
him a certain way up the mount, and Joshua, apparently, to the edge of 
the cloud that was on the top. But no man went with him into the 
cloud, and, as in the case of the lawgiving (xix. 12), neither the people 
nor the cattle were permitted to appear on the mount. 

5-10. When Moses went up with the new tables the Lord vouch- 
safes to come down and meet with him. In fulfilment of his promise 



SGO THE ^EW TABLES HEWN. 

lie proclaims before him the name of the Lord. The Lord, the Creator 
and Covenant-keeper. This name is here rendered emphatic by being 
repeated. God, the Eternal and Almighty. Then follow seven sig- 
nificant characteristics, three pairs referring to his mercy, and a single 
one affirming his justice. Merciful and gracious, disposed to relieve 
suffering and dispense happiness. Long-suffering and abundant in 
mercy and truth, having long patience and much kindness and truthful- 
ness in store for the penitent. The former pair speaks of the general 
tendency, the latter of the long duration and vast plenitude of the 
divine compassion and constancy. This serves to calm the solicitude 
of Moses, brooding in sadness on the recent perversity of the people. 
Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression 
and sin. This speaks at length not of disposition or its amount, but 
of the certain and final application of mercy and forgiveness to all 
generations of those who seek it with penitence. Sin is moral aberra- 
tion ; transgression involves breach of trust ; and iniquity implies 
perversity of conduct. The last appears the most aggravated; yet 
all these forms of sin he may and will forgive the returning penitent. 
Yet at the same time the proclamation runs, he will by no means acquit. 
And as a special case of the unalterable principle of rectitude, he visits 
the iniquity of the impenitent, even though it descend to the son from 
the father (xx. 5). In the case of those forgiven, the guilt that cannot 
be acquitted falls on the head of a voluntary and accepted substitute. 
The perplexity of Moses is now so far solved, that he sees mercy 
secured and perpetuated in some to all generations, while others will 
obstinately refuse it and inevitably perish. He can now repose in 
tranquil confidence on the purpose of him who keeps mercy for a 
thousand generations of them that love him (xx. 6). This purpose 
determines the perpetuity of the church on earth, though many from 
time to time fall away. He does not tell us, he could not convey in 
words, what he saw when the Lord passed by. But he records for 
our comfort the sublime proclamation which he heard, containing the 
substance of that revelation which was then made to him of the glory 
of God. Filled with wonder and solemn awe, he made haste, bent his 
head and bowed his body in profoundest reverence. 

9, 10. Moses now repeats his already effectual intercession. Lord. 
He addresses God now as the moral Governor and Judge, to whom it 



EXODUS XXXIV. 9-26. 301 

pertains to dispense pardon. For it is a stiff-necked people. The for 
here applies not to the first clause only, but to the whole sentence 
following. It is a stiff-necked people whom thou wilt pardon and 
make thine inheritance. Therefore, go with us. Our iniquity and 
our sin. Moses here identifies himself with the people, and entreats 
forgiveness for the common guilt of all. His conduct in this whole 
transaction is actuated by motives purely benign. 10. The covenant 
is now restored. It is to be celebrated by marvels of unparalleled 
power. Enacted, effected by no less than creative power. The whole 
people will behold the work of the Lord, which will be terrible in its 
judgments upon the adversaries. 

11-26. Here a series of admonitions suitable to the occasion is 
repeated and enforced. 11-16. jNo treaty is to be made with the old 
inhabitants of the land, as it would involve a compliance, or a tempta- 
tion to comply, with their idolatrous customs (xxiii. 23, 24). The list 
of nations here given differs from that in iii. 8, by giving the first place 
to the Amorites, with whom the people are to come first in contact 
(xxiii. 23). Lest it be a snare in the midst of thee, insinuating a new 
kind of apostasy from thy own God. Tlieir pillars, the monumental 
stones connected with their idols. Their statues, the wooden posts or 
rudely carved figures of Astarte, the female moon-deity of the Kenaan- 
ites. WJwse name is Jealous. The figure of marriage, applied to the 
covenant relation of God and his people (xx. 5), is now carried a step 
further. The worship of idols or false gods is described as fornication 
or adultery, a term peculiarly appropriate to rites that were grossly 
licentious in themselves, as well as acts of high treason against the 
only true God. Intermarriage with these votaries of idolatry and 
uncleanness is expressly forbidden. 

17-26. Molten gods (xx. 23) are again emphatically prohibited. 
The feast of unleavened bread (xii.), the sanctification of the first-born 
(xiii.), the observance of the Sabbath (xvi.), the other annual festivals 
(xxiii. 10-19) are then called to mind, and their observance reinforced. 
As they are connected with leading events in the national history, and 
are eminently characteristic of the national worship, they are well 
fitted to awaken the gratitude and keep alive the faith of the ran- 
somed people. 24. A promise is given that their lands will not be 
coveted or seized when they are gone to appear at the great festivals 
46 



362 INSTRUCTIONS REPEATED. 

before the Lord. 25, 26. Certain minute but significant directions 
are here reiterated. Leaven, as the emblem of moral corruption, is 
to be absent from their offerings. The passover lamb, as the type of 
atonement, is to be all-necessary, as well as all-sufficient for its imme- 
diate use. The first of the first-fruits is to be dedicated to the Lord, 
as the beginning and earnest of all that we have. The mother's milk, 
that which is given with maternal kindness for nourishment, is not to 
be coldly turned into a means of destruction. These four secondary 
regulations, constantly whispering in our ears that the service of God 
must be sincere, prompt, entire, and tender, are well calculated to culti- 
vate in the soul a growing abhorrence of idolatry, with all its inherent 
and attendant abominations. 

27, 28. Write thou these words, evidently the record of this interview 
and all that was said on the occasion ; as he wrote the book of the 
original covenant (xxiv. 4—7). These are to be on record, as the 
special conditions of the civil part of the covenant. Forty days and 
forty nights. The descendants of Israel left Egypt on the fifteenth of 
the first month (xii.) On the first of the third month (xix. 1) they 
reached the Wilderness of Sinai, and probably on the sixth the law was 
proclaimed on the mount. On the seventh the covenant was ratified, 
and Moses and the elders asceDded some part of the mount (xxiv. 4). 
The seventh day after, apparently, and in that case on the fourteenth 
of the third month, Moses was called and entered into the cloud. Forty 
days after, or on the twenty-third of the fourth month, he descends to 
witness the festival in honor of the golden calf. The Talmud, however, 
places this act of apostacy on the 17th of Tammuz, and therein agrees 
with many interpreters, who include the six days during which Moses 
waited before he was summoned into the cloud surrounding the divine 
presence in the forty days of his abode on the mount. On the day 
after (xxxii. 30) Moses makes intercession for the people, removes the 
official tent from the camp, and receives a favorable answer from the 
Lord. The next day, apparently (xxxiv. 2), is the first of the second 
forty days spent on the mount. Allowing twenty -nine days and thirty 
days for the next two months, we arrive at the fifth of the sixth month, 
as the day on which he may have descended the second time. Here, 
again, Jewish tradition assumes that he ascended on the first of the 
sixth month and came down on the tenth of the seventh, which is the 



EXODUS XXXIV. 27-35. 308 

day of atonement. But there seems to be no reason for allowing an 
interval of at least thirty-six days to elapse between the first descent 
and the second ascent. Nor is there anything suitable in the people 
afflicting their souls on the day of Moses's return from the mount ; and 
there is certainly no allusion to the day of atonement in the narrative. 
And further, only five months and a half are left for the construction 
of the tabernacle, which was finished within the first year. Josephus 
assigns seven months for this undertaking, which is a short enough 
period. If Moses came down on the fifth of the sixth month, we have 
nearly seven months, and if his descent was six days earlier, or on the 
last day of the fifth month, we have precisely seven months for the 
construction of the tabernacle and all its appurtenances. And he wrote 
From the first verse we learn that it was God himself who wrote the 
ten words on the two tables which Moses had prepared (Deut. x. 4). 

29-35. The glory on the face of Moses. Moses knew not. He was 
not conscious of this appearance in himself, which was obvious to others. 
That the shin of his face shone, sent forth rays of light. The original 
word signifies to spring forth as horns, and hence the Vulgate has esse 
cornutam, and the painters have drawn Moses with horns. The Lord 
had passed by him. He had even stood with him and talked with him. 
So much of his glory had shone upon the senses and the face of Moses 
as mortal man was able to bear. 30. This extraordinary lustre struck 
Aaron and the people with wonder and apprehension. They were 
afraid to come nigh him, as one who still bore the conspicuous marks 
of his long converse with God. 31, 32. When he called them, how- 
ever, Aaron and the princes of the assembly approached, and he 
conversed with them. The people then drew nigh, and he gave them 
in command all that the Lord had communicated to him. 33-35. 
When his discourse was finished he put a vail on his face. When his 
public and official part was performed, he vails the dazzling lustre of 
his face, not only in modest reserve, but also for the convenience and 
comfort of private intercourse. When, however, he went in before the 
Lord, he withdrew the vail until he had received his commands and 
delivered them to the people. Hence it was his custom to resume the 
vail until he went in to speak with the Lord. The place of communi- 
cation was, we may suppose, the separate tent of meeting, until the 
tabernacle was erected. The awe-struck multitude had here a con- 



364 PREPARATIONS FOR MAKING THE TABERNACLE. 

spicuous sign before their eyes that Moses was the veritable servant 
of the Most High God, the prime minister of the old covenant. The 
shrinking of their gaze from this borrowed splendor demonstrated to 
them that they were not yet prepared for the higher manifestations of 
the divine glory itself. The vail on the face of Moses, like the vail 
before the mercy-seat, taught them that the present economy was 
adapted to the weakness of their spiritual vision ; while so much of 
the brightness shone through as to satisfy their present needs and 
capacities, and give them a foreglance and earnest of what awaited 
them in the advancing stages of their spiritual training (2 Cor. iii. 7-18). 
Thus ends this sudden outbreak of idolatry and sad interruption of 
spiritual prosperity in a new and unexpected display of the divine 
mercy vouchsafed on the intercession of Moses to the chastened and 
repentant people. The breach being healed, and the covenant restored 
with even additional splendor, the construction of the tabernacle will 
now proceed. 



XV. THE TABERNACLE MADE AND SET UP.— Ex. xxxv.-xl. 
CHAP. XXXV. — PREP ARATIONS FOP MAKING THE TABERNACLE. 

22. nn hook, clasp, ring; used for female ornament, and for an 
instrument in the nose of a bull for controlling it. otD a nose or ear- 
ring (Gen. xxiv. 47; xxxv. 4) ; r. bind or lace. nsaa a iinger-ring ; 
r. dip. To 13 little ball, bead, necklace of beads. 

XXXY. 1. And Moses gathered all the assembly of the 
sons of Israel, and said unto them, These are the words which 
the Lord commanded us to do. 2. Six days shall work be 
done, and on the seventh day shall be for you a holy Sabbath 
of rest to the Lord : whosoever doeth work therein shall die. 
3. Ye shall not kindle a tire in all your dwellings on the 
Sabbath day. <j\ 54. 

4. And Moses spake unto all the assembly of the sons of 
Israel, saying, This is the word which the Lord hath com- 



EXODUS xxxv. 355 

manded, saying, 5. Take from among you an offering unto 
the Lord ; whosoever is willing of heart shall bring it, an offer- 
ing of the Lord : gold and silver and brass ; 6. And blue and 
purple and crimson ; and fine linen and goats' hair ; 7. And 
rams' skins dyed red, and badgers' skins ; and shittah wood ; 
8. And oil for the light ; and spices for the anointing oil, 
and for the incense of perfumes ; 9. And onyx stones and 
stones for setting, for the ephod and for the breastplate. 10. 
And every one wise of heart among you shall come and make 
all that the Lord hath commanded. 11. The tabernacle, its 
tent and its covering ; its taches and its boards, its bars, its 
pillars, and its sockets ; 12. The ark and its staves, the mercy- 
seat, and the vail of covering ; 13. The table and its staves, 
and all its vessels, and the shew-bread ; 14. And the candle- 
stick for the light, and its vessels and its lamps, and the oil for 
the lights ; 15. And the altar of incense and its staves, and the 
anointing oil and the incense of perfumes, and the cover for 
the door at the entrance of the tabernacle ; 16. The altar of 
burnt-offering and the brazen grate for it, its staves and all its 
vessels ; the laver and its stand ; IT. The hangings of the 
court, its pillars and their sockets, and the cover for the door 
of the court ; 18. The pins of the tabernacle and the pins of 
the court and their cords ; 19. The garments of office to min- 
ister in the sanctuary, the holy garments for Aaron the priest, 
and the garments of his sons to serve as priests. 

20. And all the assembly of the sons of Israel went forth 
from the presence of Moses. 21. And they came, every man 
whom his heart stirred up ; and every one whom his spirit 
made willing brought the Lord's offering for the work of the 
tent of meeting and for all its service and for the holy garments. 
22. And they came the men with the women : all the willing 
of heart brought clasps and ear-rings and rings and necklaces, 



366 PREPARATION EOR MAKING THE TABERNACLE. 

all jewels of gold ; and every man made a wave-offering of gold 
unto the Lord. 23. And every man with whom was found 
blue and purple and crimson, and fine linen and goats' hair, 
and rams' skins dyed red, and badgers' skins, brought them. 
24. Every one making an offering of silver and brass brought 
the offering of the Lord : and every one with whom was found 
shittah wood for any work of the service brought it. 25. And 
every woman wise of heart span with her hands : and they 
brought yarn, blue and purple and crimson, and fine linen. 
26. And all the women whose heart stirred them up with wis- 
dom span the goats' hair. 27. And the rulers brought onyx 
stones and stones for setting, for the ephod and for the breast- 
plate ; 28. And spice and oil, for the light and for the 
anointing oil and for the incense of perfumes. 29. Every man 
and woman whose heart made them willing to bring for all 
the work which the Lord commanded to do by the hand of 
Moses, the sons of Israel brought a free-will offering unto 
the Lord. «[[ 55. 

30. And Moses said unto the sons of Israel, See, the Lord 
hath called by name Bezalel, son of Uri, son of Hur, of the 
tribe of Judah. 31. And filled him with the spirit of God in 
wisdom, in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all work- 
manship ; 32. And to devise designs, to work in gold and in 
silver and in brass ? 33. And in cutting of stone for setting 
and in carving of wood, to make every work of design. 34. 
And he hath put it in his heart to teach, both in him and in 
Aholiab, son of Ahisamak, of the tribe of Dan. 35. Them 
hath he filled with wisdom of heart to do all the work of the 
artificer, and the designer, and the embroiderer in blue and in 
purple and in crimson and in fine linen, and of the weaver ; 
who do every work and devise designs. 



EXODUS xxxv. 3G7 

Of the remaining six chapters, the first records the offerings and 
other preparations for the tabernacle ; the next four, the progress from 
the beginning to the end of the work ; and the last, the actual erection 
and inauguration of the house of God. There is little to remark on 
these chapters, as they are mainly a detail of the execution of that of 
which the plan is contained in chapters xxv.-xxxi. 

1-3. A preliminary injunction concerning the Sabbath. Moses 
begins where the directions concerning the sanctuary close (xxxi. 12- 
17). The special precept of this passage is, "Ye shall not kindle a 
fire in all your dwellings on the Sabbath day." This precludes smith- 
work and cooking. For domestic comfort, fire was not a thing of 
necessity or mercy in the Peninsular of Sinai. In colder regions it 
is otherwise ; and there the law of necessity or mercy regulates the 
observance of the Sabbath. 

4-19. The materials required of the people, and the articles to be 
made for the sanctuary are here specified. The former are repeated 
from xxv.« 1-7. 10. The wise of heart are those whb possess the- 
natural gift or the acquired training for the various mechanical arts.. 
11—19. The whole apparatus of the sanctuary is here enumerated from 
the previous directions (xxv. 30). The garments of office are repeated 
from xxxi. 10. 

20-29. The contribution of the people. TJie Lord's offering (hoTOn . 
xxv. 2), that which is lifted up in token of dedication to. the Lord 
(xxix. 24, 27). 22. The man with the woman. Both sexes join in 
this free-will offering. The jewels of gold are apparently the offerings 
of the women. Every man made a wave-offering. While each female 
presented her own gold trinket of whatever kind, the men seem to 
have made a joint contribution of gold. This may account for the 
phrase " made a wave-offering " (xxix. 24). 25. Span with her hands. 
This was a feminine employment. Blue and purple and crimson. 
This implies that the dyeing preceded the spinning. As the fine linen 
is distinguished from the colored stuffs, it is probable that they were 
of wool (Num. xix. 6 ; Heb. ix. 19). 29. The sons of Israel. This 
verse proves that the phrase may extend, when the occasion requires, 
to the female as well as the male descendants of Israel. 

30-35. The calling of Bezalel and Aholiab is announced to the 
people (xxxi. 1-6). 



368 THE TABERNACLE MADE. 

CHAP. XXXVI. — THE TABERNACLE MADE. 

XXXVI. 1. And Bezalel and Aholiab, and every wise-hearted 
man in whom the Lord put wisdom and understanding to know 
how to do every work of the service of the sanctuary, shall do 
according to all that the Lord hath commanded. 2. And 
Moses called Bezalel and Aholiab and every wise-hearted man, 
in whose heart the Lord had put wisdom, every one whom his 
heart stirred up to draw near to the work to do it. 3. And 
they received of Moses all the offering which the sons of Israel 
had brought for the work of the service of the sanctuary to do 
it : and they brought unto him yet a free offering from morn- 
ing to morning. 4. Then came all the wise men that were 
doing the work of the sanctuary, every man from his work 
which he was doing. 5. And they spake unto Moses, saying, 
The people are bringing much more than enough for the 
service of the work, which the Lord commanded to make. 6. 
And Moses commanded, and they issued a proclamation in the 
camp, saying, Let not man or woman make any more work for 
the offering of the sanctuary. And the people were restrained 
from bringing. 7. And their work was sufficient for all the 
work to make it, and more. § 77. 

8. And all the wise of heart among them that were doing 
•the work of the tabernacle made ten curtains of twined fine 
linen, and blue and purple and crimson : with cherubim of 
cunning work made he them. 9. The length of one curtain 
was eight and twenty cubits, and the breadth of one curtain 
four cubits : the curtains had all one measure. 10. And he 
coupled five curtains one unto another ; and five curtains he 
coupled one unto another. 11. And he made loops of blue on 
the selvedge of the first curtain at the end in the coupling : 
so he made in the selvedge of the last curtain in the second 



EXODUS xxxvi. 369 

coupling. 12. Fifty loops made he in the first curtain ; and 
fifty loops made he in the edge of the curtain that was in the 
second coupling ; the loops matching one another. 13. And 
he made fifty taches of gold, and coupled the curtains one to 
another with the taches ; and the tabernacle became one. ^f 56. 

14. And he made curtains of goats' hair for a tent over the 
tabernacle ; eleven curtains made he them. 15. The length 
of one curtain was thirty cubits, and four cubits the breadth 
of one curtain ; the eleven curtains had one measure. 16. 
And he coupled five curtains by themselves, and six curtains 
by themselves. 17. And he made fifty loops on the selvedge 
of the last curtain in the coupling ; and fifty loops made he on 
the selvedge of the curtain in the second coupling. 18. And 
he made fifty taches of brass to couple the tent that it might 
be one. 19. And he made a covering for the tent of rams' skins 
dyed red, and a covering of badgers' skins from above. § 78. 

20. And he made boards for the tabernacle of shittah wood 
standing up. 21. Ten cubits was the length of a board, and a 
cubit and a half the breadth of one board. 22. Two tenons 
were to one board, set alike one to another : thus he made 
for all the boards of the tabernacle. 23. And he made 
the boards for the tabernacle, twenty boards on the south 
side southward. 24. And forty sockets of silver made he 
under the twenty boards ; two sockets under one board for its 
two tenons, and two sockets under another board for its two 
tenons. 25. And for the other side of the tabernacle north- 
wards he made twenty boards. 26. And their forty sockets of 
silver ; two sockets under one board, and two sockets under 
another board. 27. And for the rear of the tabernacle west- 
ward he made six boards. 28. And two boards made he for 
the corners of the tabernacle in the rear. 29. And they were 
doubled beneath, and together they were complete at the top 
47 



370 THE TABERNACLE MADE. 

for the one ring ; thus he did for the two of them for the two 
corners. 30. And there were eight boards, and their sockets 
of silver were sixteen sockets ; two sockets each under the one 
board. 31. And he made bars of shittah wood, five for the 
boards of the one side of the tabernacle, 32. And five bars 
for the boards of the other side of the tabernacle, and five bars 
for the boards of the tabernacle to the rear westward. 33. 
And he made the middle bar to shoot in the middle of the 
boards from end to end. 34. And he overlaid the boards with 
gold, and made their rings of gold to be places for the bars : 
and he overlaid the bars with gold. 

35. And he made the vail of blue and purple and crimson, 
and twined fine linen : of cunning work made he it, with cher- 
ubim. 36. And he made for it four pillars of shittah, and 
overlaid them with gold, and their hooks were of gold : and 
he cast for them four sockets of silver. 37. And he made a 
cover for the door of the tent of blue and purple and crimson, 
and twined fine linen, wrought with needlework. 38. And 
its five pillars and their hooks, and he overlaid their chap- 
iters and their rods with gold ; and their five sockets were 
of brass. H" 57. 

The commencement of the work and the construction of the taber- 
nacle are recorded in this chapter, which after the first section cor- 
responds with chapter xxvi. 

1-7. The materials for the work handed over to the workmen. And 

Bezalel shall do (nbsn). This verse is properly the close of the 

address of Moses to the people, and should have stood at the end of 
the previous chapter. 2. He now addresses Bezalel, Aholiab, and their 
men. 3-7. The people bring enough, and more than, enough for the 
work, until they are required to desist. As the spinning and weaving 
must have begun almost simultaneously with the labors of the other 
workmen, they were bringing in wrought materials for some months 
after the works began. 



exodus xxxvn. 371 

8-38. The construction of the tabernacle is here minutely reported. 
The full detail into which the sacred writer enters indicates the para- 
mount importance attached to the work. The narrative begins with 
the tabernacle itself, which is the largest piece of the work. But we 
may suppose that other sets of workmen were engaged on the furniture, 
the court, and the priestly dresses. It was necessary also that the tab- 
ernacle should be ready for the sacred utensils as soon as they were 
prepared. The sections of this chapter after the first correspond 
nearly with those of chapter xxvi. 



CHAP. XXXYn.— THE FURNITURE IN THE TABERNACLE. 

XXX VII. 1. And Bezalel made the ark of shittah wood ; 
two cubits and a half the length of it, a cubit and a half 
the breadth of it, and a cubit and a half the height of it. 2. 
And he overlaid it with pure gold within and without ; and 
made for it a crown of gold round about. 3. And he cast 
for it four rings of gold upon its four feet : and two rings 
were on the one side of it, and two rings on the other side 
of it. 4. And he made staves of shittah wood, and overlaid 
them with gold. 5. And he put the staves in the rings on 
the sides of the ark, to bear the ark. 6. And he made a 
mercy-seat of pure gold ; two cubits and a half the length of 
it, and a cubit and half the breadth of it. 7. And he made 
two cherubim of gold ; of beaten work made he them, on the 
two ends of the mercy-seat. 8. One cherub on the one end, 
and another cherub on the other end ; out of the mercy-seat 
made he the cherubim on its two ends. 9. And the cherubim 
were spreading out two wings above, covering the mercy-seat 
with their wings, and their faces each to the other ; toward the 
mercy-seat were the faces of the cherubim. ^f 58. 

10. And he made the table of shittah wood ; two cubits the 
length of it, and a cubit the breadth of it, and a cubit and a 



372 THE FURNITURE IN THE TABERNACLE. 

half the height of it. 11. And he overlaid it with pure gold, 
and made for it a crown of gold round about. 12. And he 
made for it a border of a hand breadth round about, and made 
a crown of gold for the border thereof round about. 13. And 
he cast for it four rings of gold ; and put the rings on the 
four corners of its four feet. 14. Over against the border were 
the rings, the places for the staves to bear the table. 15. And 
he made the staves of shittah wood, and overlaid them with 
gold, to bear the table. 16. And he made the vessels which 
are upon the table, its dishes, and its bowls, and its flagons, 
and its cups, to pour out withal, of pure gold. ^f 59. 

17, And he made the candlestick of piire gold : of beaten 
work made he the candlestick ; its block and its shaft, its cups 
its knops and its flowers, were of the same. 18. And six 
branches coming out of its sides ; three branches of the candle- 
stick out of the one side, and three branches of the candlestick 
out of the other side : 19. Three almond-shaped cups in 
one branch, a knop and a flower ; and three almond-shaped 
cups in another branch, a knop and a flower : so for the six 
branches coming out of the candlestick. 20. And in the can- 
dlestick were four almond-shaped cups, its knops and its 
flowers. 21. And a knop under two branches of the same, 
and a knop under two branches of the same, and a knop under 
two branches of the same, for the six branches coming out of it. 
22. Their knops and their branches were of the same ; all of 
it was one beaten piece of pure gold. 23. And he made its 
seven lamps, and its snuffers and its snuff-dishes of pure 
gold. 24. Of a talent of pure gold made he it and all its 
vessels. ^f 60. 

25. And he made the altar of incense of shittah wood ; a 
cubit the length of it, and a cubit the breadth of it, being 
square, and two cubits the height of it ; its horns were of the 



EXODUS XXXVIIL 373 

same. 26. And he oterlaid it with pure gold, its top and its 
sides round about and its horns ; and he made for it a crown 
of gold round about. 27. And two rings of gold made he for 
it under the crown of it, on the two flanks thereof, on the two 
sides of it, for places for the staves to bear it withal. 28. And 
he made the staves of shittah wood, and overlaid them with 
gold. 29. And he made the holy anointing oil, and the pure 
incense of perfumes, the work of the perfumer. § 79. 

This chapter records the making of the ark and mercy-seat, the 
table, the candlestick, and the altar of incense. These are all the 
internal furniture of the tabernacle. It corresponds to chapter xxv., 
wanting the first nine verses, and to vs. 1-5, and 22-25 of chapter xxx. 
The last section is here summed up in a single verse. 

3. And he cast upon its four feet. The sense is pregnant 

here. It is understood that the rings, when cast, are put upon the 
feet of the ark. So in xxxviii. 5. 



CHAP. XXXVITI. — THE COUET AND ITS FURNITURE. 

XXXVIII. 1. And he made the altar of burnt-offering of 
shittah wood ; five cubits the length of it, and five cubits the 
breadth of it, being square, and three cubits the height of it. 
2. And he made the horns of it on the four corners thereof, the 
horns thereof of the same ; and he overlaid it with brass. 3. 
And he made all the vessels of the altar, the boxes, and the 
shovels, and the basins, and the flesh-hooks, and the fire-pans ; 
all its vessels made he of brass. 4. And he made for the altar 
a grate of net-work of brass, under its border beneath unto the 
half of it. 5. And he cast four rings in the four ends of the 
grate of brass, to be places for the staves. 6. And he made 
the staves of shittah wood, and overlaid them with brass. 7. 
And he put the staves in the rings on the sides of the altar 
to bear it withal : hollow, of boards, made he it. § 80. 



374 THE COURT AM> ITS FURNITURE. 

8. And lie made the laver of brass, and its stand of brass, of 
the mirrors of the women who attended at the door of the tent 
of meeting. § 81. 

9. And he made the court ; for the south side southward, 
the hanging of the court of fine linen twined a hundred cubits. 
10. Their pillars twenty, and their sockets of brass twenty ; 
the hooks of the pillars and their rods of silver. 11. And for 
the north side a hundred cubits, their pillars twenty and their 
sockets of brass twenty ; the hooks of the pillars and their rods 
of silver. 12. And for the west side the hangings were fifty 
cubits, their pillars ten and their sockets ten ; the hooks of the 
pillars and their rods of silver. 13. And for the east side, 
eastward, fifty cubits. 14. The hangings fifteen cubits for the 
wing ; their pillars three and their sockets three. 15. And for 
the other wing on this side, and on that side of the court gate, 
the hangings were fifteen cubits ; their pillars three and their 
sockets three. 16. All the hangings of the court round about 
were of fine linen twined. 17. And the sockets for the pillars 
were of brass, the hooks of the pillars and their rods of silver, 
and the overlaying of their chapiters of silver : and all the 
pillars of the court were joined with rods of silver. 18. And 
the covering of the court gate was wrought with needlework of 
blue and purple and crimson, and fine linen twined : and 
twenty cubits was the length, and the height in the breadth 
five cubits, matching the hangings of the court. 19. And their 
pillars four, and their sockets of brass four ; their hooks of 
silver, and the overlaying of their chapiters and their rods of 
silver. 20. And all the pins for the tabernacle and for the 
court round about were of brass. 23. § § § 82. 

21. These are the accounts of the tabernacle, the tabernacle 
of the testimony, that was counted at the word of Moses, the 
service of the Levites by the hand of Ithamar, son of Aaron 



exodus xxxvin. 375 

the priest. 22. And Bezalel, son of Uri, son of Hur, of the 
tribe of Judah, made all that the Lord commanded Moses. 
23. And with him Aholiab, son of Ahisamak, of the tribe of 
Dan, an artificer and designer, and an embroiderer in blue and 
in purple and in crimson and in fine linen. 24. All the gold 
that was used for the work in all the work of the sanctuary, 
even the gold of the offering, was nine and twenty talents, and 
seven hundred and thirty shekels, by the shekel of the sanc- 
tuary. 25. And the silver of those who were numbered of the 
assembly was a hundred talents, and a thousand and seven 
hundred and five and seventy shekels, by the shekel of the 
sanctuary. 26. A beka for the poll, the half shekel by the 
shekel of the sanctuary, for every one passing into the num- 
bered from twenty years old and upward, for six hundred 
thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty. 27. 
And the hundred talents of silver went for casting the sockets 
of the sanctuary and the sockets of the vail ; a hundred sockets 
for a hundred talents, a talent for a socket. 28. And of the 
thousand and seven hundred and five and seventy shekels 
made he hooks for the pillars, and overlaid their chapiters, and 
rodded them. 29. And the brass of the wave-offering was 
seventy talents and two thousand and four hundred shekels. 
30. And with it he made the sockets for the door of the tent 
of meeting, and the brazen altar and the brazen grate for it, 
and all the vessels of the altar ; 31. And the sockets of the 
court round about and the sockets of the court gate ; and all 
the pins of the tabernacle and all the pins of the court round 
about. 

This chapter describes the construction of the altar of burnt-offering, 
the laver and the court in which they were placed, and ends with an 
account of the metals employed in the work. 

1-20 correspond with chapter xxvii. 1-8, xxx. 18, and xxvii. 9-18. 



376 THE PRIESTLY GARMENTS. 

21-31. This passage refers to xxx. 11-16, and xxvii. 19. It is an 
account of the metals required for the sanctuary. That was counted 
refers directly to the tabernacle, concerning which the account was 
kept. By the hand of 3foses, at his order. The service of. This 
reckoning was the business of the Levites under the superintendence 
of Ithamar. 25-26. The silver of those that were numbered of the 
assembly. The order given in xxx. 11-16, including the payment of 
a beka for every male from twenty years old and upwards, had been 
so far executed, probably on the day of atonement. The sum of the 
class numbered is six hundred and three thousand five hundred and 
fifty. This was an important part of the service of the Levites (vs. 21). 
This census was completed by the examiDation of the documents and 
the drawing up of an authenticated register about half a year after, of 
which we have an account in the first chapters of Numbers. 27, 28. 
From these verses it appears that a talent was equal to 3000 shekels. 
Reckoning the shekel at 220 grains, we find that the gold amounts to 
nearly 3350 pounds troy weight, the silver to nearly 11,526 pounds, 
and the brass to nearly 8112 pounds. 

The Israelites had left Egypt the year in which they made this con- 
tribution for the construction of the tabernacle. Though many of them 
were employed in servile labors, yet the people as a whole must have 
been possessed of considerable wealth. To this the Egyptians made a 
considerable accession at their departure. The sum here contributed 
is moderate in comparison with the enormous treasures amassed by 
the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Arabians, and the Egyptians 
themselves. 



CHAP. XXXIX.— THE PRIESTLY GARMENTS. 

XXXIX. 1. And of the blue and the purple and the 
crimson they made garments of office to minister in the sanc- 
tuary : and they made the holy garments for Aaron, as the 
Lord commanded Moses. If 61. 

2. And he made the ephod of gold, of blue and purple and 
crimson, and fine linen twined. 3. And they beat out thin 



exodus xxxix. 377 

plates of gold, and cut threads to work in amid the blue and 
the purple and the crimson, and the fine linen twined, with 
cunning work. 4. Shoulder-straps made they for it, joining it ; 
at the two edges thereof was it joined. 5. And the belt for 
fastening it, that was upon it, was of the same, according to 
the work thereof; gold, blue and purple and crimson, and fine 
linen ; as the Lord commanded Moses. § 83. 

6. And they wrought onyx stones enclosed in ouches of gold, 
engraven, like the engravings of a signet, with the names of 
the sons of Israel. 7. And he put them on the shoulders of 
the ephod, to be stones of memorial for the sons of Israel ; as 
the Lord commanded Moses. ^[ 62. 

8. And he made the breastplate of cunning work, like the 
work of the ephod ; of gold, blue and purple and crimson, and 
twined fine linen. 9. It was square ; double made they the 
breastplate; a span its length, and a span its breadth, being 
doubled. 10. And they set in it four rows of stone, a row of 
sardius, topaz, and emerald, the first row. 11. And the second 
row, a carbuncle, a sapphire, and a diamond. 12. And the 
third row, a ligure, an agate, and an amethyst. 18. And the 
fourth row a chrysolite, an onyx, and a jasper, enclosed in 
ouches of gold in their settings. 14. And the stones were 
engraven with the names of the sons of Israel ; these are twelve, 
according to their names, with the engravings of a signet, each 
with its name, for the twelve tribes. 15. And they made on 
the breastplate attaching chains of wreathen work, of pure 
gold. 16. And they made two ouches of gold, and two rings 
of gold, and put the two rings on the two ends of the breast- 
plate. 17. And they put the two cords of gold upon the two 
rings on the two ends of the breastplate. 18. And the two 
ends of the two cords they fastened in the two ouches, and put 
them on the shoulders of the ephod in front of it. 19. And 
48 



378 THE PRIESTLY GARMENTS. 

they made two rings of gold, and put them on the two ends 
of the breastplate, on the border of it which was on the 
further side of the ephod inward. 20. And they made two 
rings of gold, and put them on the two shoulder-straps of the 
ephod beneath in the front of it, over against the joining 
thereof, above the belt of the ephod. 21. And they bound the 
breastplate by its rings unto the rings of the ephod with a lace 
of blue to be upon the belt of the ephod, that the breastplate 
be not loosed from the ephod ; as the Lord commanded 
Moses. ^f 63. 

22. And he made the robe of the ephod of woven work, all 
of blue. 23. And the hole of the robe was in the midst of it, 
as the hole of a habergeon ; a binding was on the hole of it 
around, that it might not be rent. 24. And they made upon 
the hem of the robe pomegranates of blue and purple and 
crimson, twined. 25. And they made bells of pure gold, and 
put the bells between the pomegranates, upon the hem of the 
robe around between the pomegranates. 26. A bell and a 
pomegranate, a bell and a pomegranate, on the hem of the 
robe around, to minister therein ; as the Lord commanded 
Moses. § 84. 

27. And they made the coats of fine linen, of woven work, 
for Aaron and for his sons ; 28. And the mitre of fine linen, 
and the goodly bonnets of fine linen, and the linen breeches 
of fine linen twined ; 29. And the girdle of fine linen twined, 
and blue and purple and crimson, of needlework ; as the Lord 
commanded Moses. § 85. 

30. And they made the plate of the holy crown of pure gold, 
and wrote upon it a writing, like the engravings of a signet, 
Holiness to the Lord. 31 And they put upon it a lace of 
blue to fasten it on the mitre above ; as the Lord commanded 
Moses. § 86. 



exodus xxxix. 379 

32. Then was finished all the service of the tabernacle of the 
tent of meeting : and the sons of Israel did according to all 
that the Lord commanded Moses, so did they. ^f 64. 

33. And they brought the tabernacle to Moses, the tent, and 
all its vessels ; its taches, its boards, it bars, and its pillars and 
its sockets ; 34. And the covering of rams' skins dyed red, and 
the covering of badgers' skins, and the vail of covering ; 35. 
The ark of the testimony and the staves thereof, and the mercy- 
seat ; 36. The table, all its vessels, and the shew-bread ; 37. The 
pure candlestick, the lamps thereof, the lamps of the ordering, 
and all its vessels, and the oil for the light ; 38. And the altar 
of gold, and the anointing oil, and the incense of perfumes, 
and the cover for the tent door ; 39. The altar of brass, and 
its grate of brass, its staves and all its vessels, the laver and 
its stand ; 40. The hangings of the court, its pillars and its 
sockets, and the cover for the court gate, its cords and its pins ; 
and all the vessels of the service of the tabernacle for the tent 
of meeting : 41. The garments of office to minister in the 
sanctuary ; the holy garments for Aaron the priest, and the 
garments of his sons to serve as priests therein. 42. Accord- 
ing to all that the Lord commanded Moses, so did the sons of 
Israel all the service. 43. And Moses saw all the work, and, 
lo, they had done it as the Lord had commanded, so had they 
done : and Moses blessed them. ^j" 65. 

This chapter contains the making of the priestly attire, the ephod, 
the breastplate, the robe, the coats, the mitre and bonnet, the girdle, 
and the plate of the holy crown ; and the presenting of the whole to 
Moses for inspection and approval. 

1-32. The articles of dress are here, no doubt, arranged in the order 
of manufacture. 

33-43. The finished articles are enumerated in detail. 36. And the 
shew-bread. This is included here as an accompaniment of the table, 



380 THE TABEKNACLE SET UP. 

for which all the requisite materials were provided. 37. So " the oil 
for the light " was ready. 38. The anointing oil and the incense of 
perfumes had also been compounded by the perfumer. 43. This verse 
reminds us of Gen. i. 31. And Moses blessed them, in token of his 
approval of the manner in which they had executed the work. 



CHAP. XL.— THE TABERNACLE SET UP. 

XL. 1. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 2. On the 
first day of the first month shalt thou set up the tabernacle of 
the tent of meeting. 3. And thou shalt put therein the ark of 
the testimony, and cover the ark with the vail. 4. And thou 
shalt bring in the table and arrange the order thereof; and thou 
shalt bring in the candlestick and set up the lamps thereof. 
5. And thou shalt set the altar of gold for incense before the 
ark of the testimony, and put the hanging of the door to the 
tabernacle. 6. And thou shalt set the altar of burnt offering 
before the door of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting. 7. 
And thou shalt set the laver between the tent of meeting and 
the altar, and put water therein. 8. And thou shalt set up 
the court around, and put the cover at the court gate. 9. 
And thou shalt take the anointing oil, and anoint the taber- 
nacle and all that is therein ; and shalt hallow it and all its 
vessels, and it shall be holy. 10. And thou shalt anoint the 
altar of burnt-offering and all its vessels ; and thou shalt hallow 
the altar, and the altar shall be most holy. 11. And thou 
shalt anoint the laver and its stand, and hallow it. 12. And 
thou shalt bring Aaron and his sons unto the door of the tent 
of meeting, and wash them with water. 13. And thou shalt 
clothe Aaron with the holy garments ; and shalt anoint him 
and hallow him, and he shall serve me as priest. 14. And 
thou shalt bring his sons and clothe them with coats ; 15. And 



EXODUS XL. 381 

thou sbalt anoint them, as thou didst anoint their father, and 
they shall serve me as priests ; and their anointing shall be to 
them a perpetual priesthood for their generations. 16. And 
Moses did according to all that the Lord commanded him, 
so did he. § 87. 

17. And it came to pass in the first month in the second 
year, on the first day of the month, that the tabernacle was set 
up. 18. And Moses set up the tabernacle, and fastened its 
sockets, and set on the boards thereof, and put in the bars 
thereof, and set up its pillars. 19. And he spread the tent 
over the tabernacle, and put the covering of the tent upon it 
above ; as the Lord commanded Moses. § 88. 

20. And he took and put the testimony in the ark, and set 
the staves on the ark ; and put the mercy-seat upon the ark 
above. 21. And he brought the ark into the tabernacle, and 
put on the vail of covering, and covered the ark of testimony ; 
as the Lord commanded Moses. § 89. 

22. And he set the table in the tent of meeting on the side 
of the tabernacle northward, without the vail. 23. And he 
laid in order upon it the bread before the Lord ; as the Lord 
commanded Moses. § 90. 

24. And he set the candlestick in the tent of meeting over 
against the table, on the side of the tabernacle southward. 25. 
And he set up the lamps before the Lord ; as the Lord com- 
manded Moses. § 91. 

26. And he set the altar of gold in the tent of meeting before 
the vail; 27. And burnt on it incense of perfumes; as the 
Lord commanded Moses. § 92. 

28. And he put the cover of the door on the tabernacle. 
29. And the altar of burnt-offering set he at the door of the 
tabernacle of the tent of meeting ; and offered upon it the 
burnt-offering and the meat-offering ; as the Lord commanded 
Moses. § 93. 



382 THE TABERNACLE SET UP. 

30. And he set the laver between the tent of meeting and 
the altar, and put water therein for washing. 31. And Moses 
and Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and there feet 
thereout ; 32. When they go into the tent of meeting, and 
when they draw near to the altar, they wash ; as the Lord 
commanded Moses. § 94. 

33. And he set up the court around the tabernacle and the 
altar; and put on the cover of the court gate: and Moses 
finished the work. ^f 56. 

34. And the cloud covered the tent of meeting ; and the 
glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. 35. And Moses was 
not able to enter the tent of meeting, because the cloud abode 
thereon, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. 36. 
And when the cloud was lifted up from over the tabernacle 
the sons of Israel set out in all their journeys. 37. And if 
the cloud was not lifted up, then they did not set out till the 
day when it was lifted up. 38. For the cloud of the Lord was 
upon the tabernacle by day, and the fire was on it by night, in 
the eyes of all the house of Israel in all their journeys. 

This chapter contains the setting up of the tabernacle, including 
the commencement of the prescribed services, and the manifestation of 
the divine presence and grace in the sanctuary. 

1-1 6. The command is issued for the rearing of the tabernacle, and 
the anointing of it, and all its vessels and ministers. 9-15. This anoint- 
ing is to signify the hallowing or setting of them apart to a holy use. 
Everything here has been tainted with the presence of sin. The sinner 
must be sanctified in order to be received again into the fellowship of 
his Maker. The great agent of sanctification is the Holy Spirit. His 
purifying work is here typified by the anointing with oil. 

17-22. We have then an orderly detail of the execution of the first 
part of this command. 17-19. The date of the rearing of the tabernacle 
is the first day of the first month of the second year (see on xxxiv. 28). 
20, 21. After the rearing of the tabernacle, the testimony, that is, the 



EXODUS XL. 17-22. 33* 

two tables of stone with the ten commandments engraven on them, is 
placed in the ark, and the ark with the mercy-seat in the most holy 
place. 22, 23. The table is placed on the north side of the holy place, 
probably at the middle of the wall. The shew-bread is set in order 
upon it. 24, 25. The candlestick occupies the corresponding place 
on the south side. Its lamps are set on. 26, 27. The altar of gold is 
placed before the vail at the middle points. The incense is kindled 
upon it. 28, 29. The altar of brass in the middle between the two 
sides, say twenty-five feet from the gate of the court. The burnt- 
offering and the meat-offering are offered upon it. 30-32. The laver 
we may suppose to be twenty -five feet from the altar, and from the 
door of the tent of meeting. Shall wash, will have washed whenever 
they proceed to the altar or the sanctuary. 32. Wash. This expresses 
the rule and custom of those engaged in the service of the tabernacle. 
33. The whole is completed by the erection of the court. We observe 
in the rearing up of the tabernacle that every part of the ritual service 
is declared to be commenced as the corresponding part of the furniture 
is put in its place — the bread laid on the table, the lighted lamps set 
on the candlestick, the incense kindled on the altar of gold, and the 
appropriate offerings made on the altar of brass. This may mean 
either that these acts were done on the instant or in due course of 
events. In the absence of any reason to the contrary we may presume 
the former to be the fact. In this case the setting up of the service 
corresponds with the history of salvation. The ark, with its enclosed 
testimony, mercy-seat, and overshadowing cherubim, indicates the pur- 
pose of salvation in the mind of the present Deity. The bread, the 
light, and the incense shadow forth the actual blessings and privileges 
of the saved on account of the atonement yet to be made. The altar 
of brass and the laver are the emblems of atonement and renewal 
eventually accomplished in the history of mankind. The process for 
the individual is now reversed. When the burnt-offering and meat- 
offering have ascended the altar the atonement has been typically 
made and accepted. When the priest cleanses himself at the laver 
the internal holiness is symbolized. Then follows the intercession, 
represented by the incense on the golden altar. After that the full 
communion of holiness and blessing. And lastly, the union with God 
is sealed for ever. 



384 THE TABERNACLE SET UP. 

34-38. Then follows an event of solemn import, which is best 
expressed in the simple language of the text. Moses was not able. In 
the first overwhelming display of the divine glory the tabernacle was 
not to be approached by man. The after proceedings, however, are 
not here recorded. We have to wait for them till we reach the 
subsequent books. This manifestation of the divine glory indicates 
the acceptance of the tabernacle and of the worship that is now com- 
menced in it. 36. When the cloud was lifted up. This intimates that 
from this time forward the cloud continued resting on the tabernacle. 
The lifting of it up was the signal of departure. The cloud by day 
and the fire by night were conspicuous before the eyes of " all the 
house of Israel in all their journeys." Young and old, male and female, 
the numbered and marshalled host and the wandering clans tending 
their flocks and herds, were alike spectators of this wondrous sign of 
the divine presence, of the central encampment of their race, and of 
their perfect security under the divine protection. With this beautiful 
thought and cheering fact the sacred writer closes his account of an 
act which is the consummation of the exodus. Some circumstances 
antecedent to the rearing of the tabernacle, and many inseparably 
connected with it, have yet to be recorded. But the fine taste of 
the narrator taught him that the descent of the divine glory upon the 
erected tabernacle was the fitting conclusion of this stage of his 
unparalleled narrative. 

The nations of the earth are no longer visibly one on the momentous 
question of allegiance to God. The holy nation has publicly come out 
from the world. The great body of mankind has become gradually 
more and more estranged from the true and living God. Four hundred 
and thirty years ago, Abraham has been called to separate himself from 
his father's home and land in preparation for this sad event. And now, 
when the process of human ungodliness is come to a head, a little nation 
sprung from him stands forth as a witness for God, a light in the midst 
of darkness, and a salt that is yet to preserve the earth. This little 
people is itself the type and germ of all coming stages of the kingdom 
of God on earth. Cradled in persecution, it yet escapes to the wilder- 
ness, and is fed with manna from the sky and water from the rock, 
by the omnipotent word of God. Its conscience is awakened by the 
promulgation of the moral law, and then led from the despair of guilt 



EXODUS XL. 385 

to the calmness of peace with God through the symbolic propitiation 
of the tabernacle. In the infancy of its mind it is wisely and kindly 
trained by the use of appropriate symbols to grasp the transcendent 
thoughts of mercy and truth, of righteousness and peace, of atonement, 
of redemption and regeneration. The roots of bitterness again and 
again burst through the soil and shoot up into a baneful luxuriance. 
Nevertheless, the planting of the Lord has taken root, and has been 
growing and gathering strength again after many storms and amidst 
many thorns through all the course of time. If Genesis tells of that 
first disobedience that brought death into the world of mankind, Exo- 
dus speaks with cheering hope of that suffering but surviving obedience 
that brings eternal life to the returning penitent. These two books, 
then, contain the pith and marrow of the ancient gospel ; Leviticus 
and Numbers being subsidiary, and Deuteronomy a recapitulation. 
From the death of Joseph, the last event in Genesis, to the rearing of 
the tabernacle, is an interval of about one hundred and forty years, as 
may be gathered from the following table : 



Event. 


Age of 
Father. 


Date of 
Event. 


Interval. 


Date of 
Death. 


Abraham called, at the age of 175 

Birth of Isaac, 

Birth of Jacob, 

Birth of Joseph, 

Jacob's descent into Egypt, 

Death of Joseph, 

Birth of Moses, 

Exodus, 

From call of Abraham to exodus, 


180 
147 
110 


2078 

2108 

2168* 

2259 

2298* 

2369 

2428* 

2508 


30 
60 
91 
39 
71 
59 
80 


2183 
2288 
2315 
2369 


430 



49 



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